JBlog

Well, it was only about a week ago that I announced my new and exciting plans with Engineers Without Borders.  Sadly, I’ve got some bad news to tell you all. After a lot of thinking and discussions with EWB over this week, I’m sorry to say that I will be indefinitely postponing my overseas placement with EWB.

The reason for the decision is due to the situation with my family. Unfortunately, my Mom is not well and we’ve received some discouraging information this week regarding her condition.  Because of all this, I am no longer be able to have an uninterrupted, 13-month placement overseas with EWB.

As you can imagine, this has been a very difficult decision for me.  My whole reason for going overseas, was to try and do a kick-ass job for the community I worked in and the partner organization I was assigned to. I truly agree with EWB’s philosophy that in order to have impact on a placement you need to spend a consistent, long-term and uninterrupted time and effort overseas. Since I know now that the situation with my family precludes that from happening, I feel that it is the right decision to put my departure on indefinite postponement. Since my desire to make a difference in the world is something I truly believe in, I have promised both myself and EWB that once my personal situation improves, I will reapply for a placement.

Those of you who have already made donations to EWB on my behalf, thank you very much and I’m sorry I won’t be able to put your donation to use overseas.  I can assure you that you have helped support other dedicated and committed volunteers help bring about an end of global poverty.

Please feel free to get in contact with me by e-mail if you have any questions regarding my decision or what’s going on in my life.

One of my responsibilities as an overseas volunteer staff-member with EWB is to help with the organizations fundraising efforts.  EWB is a non-profit registered charity in Canada and all of its programs, both in-Canada and overseas, are made possible through the generous donations of our donors.  No donation is too large or too small, and all donations $20 or over are eligible for tax receipts.  For our overseas programs, donations go to cover the cost of flights, modest living stipends for our volunteers (pegged to the salary of a mid-level local bureaucrat in the host country), medical expenses for our volunteers and placement expenses.

If you feel willing to make a donation to EWB, you can do so securely online at http://www.ewb.ca/donate or by calling 1-866-481-3696.

If you decide to make a donation, please send me a note saying so and how much you donated to make our accounting processes go a little smoother if you feel comfortable doing so.  If not, that’s cool too, we’ll just have to do a little more work to allocate the donation accordingly.

Also, EWB likes to make connections to workplaces for sponsorship.  Workplace sponsorship can be a great way for a company to show support for corporate social responsibility and public relations.  EWB can also provide your workplace with special lunch-n-learn programs and presentations about our work.  If you think that this would be something that would be a good fit for your workplace, drop me a line and we can set something up with either myself or a local EWB chapter!

I got back from my UK + Ireland adventure last Thursday. You have to add the “+ Ireland” since the Irish get a little upset when they get lumped in with the UK. Anyways, Ireland was amazing. Scotland was Amazing. Took 350 pictures and as soon as I figure a good way to get them up here, we will all be able to glimpse at all the fun I had!

On a completly different note, I started work to day at the Engineers Without Borders (Canada) (henceforth known as EWB) national office. Being a statutory holiday here in Canada the office was pretty quiet and there wasn’t much going on, which is probably the best way to start a new job. It looks like I’ll be spending the term developing the organizations core information/communication system myEWB which should keep me busy for a longtime, most likely longer than the life of my contract!