Alumni Spotlight - Ed Martin
Ed Martin never imagined himself travelling around the world,
working in a developing country. In fact, he was only interested in
helping from this side of the globe. So, in 2005 he took on the
challenge of getting one of the most active groups on campus off
the ground as part of a work term: the Memorial chapter of
Engineers Without Borders. And now Ed is committed to a year of
volunteering in Zambia, Africa.
Ed, who graduated with a mechanical engineering degree this past
spring, was one of the driving forces behind Memorial’s
chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a leading charitable
organization dedicated to reducing world poverty by promoting human
development through access to technology. Their slogan: Because
technology can drive extraordinary change. Ed is the second
engineering student to travel to Africa. Term 3 student Ian Froude
recently spent four months in Africa; spending his work term
traveling and volunteering through a program run by the national
EWB office called the Junior Fellowship Program.
Ed said the majority of the placements are in Africa. In 2005,
Canadian students were sent to East Timor, Ghana, Tanzania,
Lesotho, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Benin, Cambodia, Madagascar,
Cameroon, Nepal, Indonesia and the Philippines.
In the past four years, EWB has sent more than 70 young Canadian
engineers to work on 35 projects in 20 countries. Closer to
home, their 6,000 members across the country strive to make Canada
the most development-friendly and sustainable country in the world.
Volunteers with the Memorial chapter have been working hard to
promote EWB and their hard work paid off when the group co-shared
the MUN Volunteer Club/Society award at the 20th annual MUN
Volunteer Days this past March.
To read about Ed’s Zambia experience, visit the EWB web site
at www.mun.ewb.ca. There
you’ll find a link to Ed’s blog in Africa as well as
Ian’s journal about his travels.