1. Humanitarian Engineering Opportunities
and Challenges in Rural Dominican
Republic:
A Case Study of El Cercado
Katie Kuwahara and Danford Jooste
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 1
4. Top Priorities
• Affordable and efficient wood-burning stoves for
residential houses
• Disinfected water for household drinking
• Affordable water heating solution for sanitation and
hygiene purposes
• Affordable and environmentally-friendly biofuel to be used
in a women’s co-operative factory
Response: Rocket stove
Response: Highly adaptable chlorinator
Response: Solar water heater
Response: Grinder and press for local crop wastes
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 4
9. Community Acceptance and Organization
Community Acceptance
• Increased awareness for
potential improvements and
desire for more project
installations
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 9
Community Organization
• Provided an opportunity for
partnership and social
acceptance
10. Challenges and Opportunities
Awareness
• Community perception of a
problem
• Measured qualitatively
through community
prioritization and attitude
Implementation Challenges
• Language barrier
• Onsite physical constraints
• Accessibility of tools and
materials
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 10
11. Challenges and Opportunities
Self-Sufficiency
• Potential for independent
iteration
• Project specific training and
understanding
• Simplicity of maintenance and
repair
• Appointment of installation
specific manager
Finance
• Challenge to implementation
• Community organization
• Volunteers
• Community-funded projects
• Project ownership
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 11
12. Conclusion
1. Projects identified and prioritized by community
2. Organized group of community leaders
3. Community liaison
4. Collaboration
5. Projects to meet end-user requirements
6. Transfer of ownership
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 12
13. Acknowledgement
Co-authors:
• Savanna Blair, Devyn Bryant, Christopher Ashkar, Sam Burt, Truc
Ngo (Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, University of San
Diego)
• Deanna Wolf (Mulvaney Center for Community, Awareness &
Social Action, University of San Diego)
• Joanne Peterson (San Pedro Parish, El Cercado, San Juan,
Dominican Republic)
All DR trip participants between 2014 and 2016.
Special thanks to financial supporters:
• University of San Diego
• Father Sylvester Kwiatkowski of Saint Patrick Parish, California
• Mr. James Shea, Grass Valley, California
October 14, 2016 2016 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference 13
Uniqueness: This project/presentation is unique because it is not just an information/experience dump, it is a blueprint for future successes in humanitarian engineering. This plan is reproducible.
Us
Project – 2014 assessment, 2015 implementation, 2016 implementation composit reflection on recent trip
Introduce El Cercado – rural town, segway
Good morning, thanks for coming, I’m danford. Katie. We represent students from the University of San Diego, specifically the school of engineering. This is a reflection of an ongoing project from a 2014 assessment trip to two implementation trips, one in 2015 another in 2016 to a planned trip to the Dominican Republic in summer 2017.
Humanitarian efforts have obvious challenges, yet community organization and development processes can transform these challenges into opportunities. This presentation is a case study of work done in a rural town of El Cercado located in the Dominican Republic. The same guidelines of development implemented in El Cercado can be adapted to other communities with similar community organization.
In the last 30 years, reformed governmental policy has resulted in a shift from an agricultural based economy to an industrial one. Consequently, this has resulted in a disparity between rural and urban areas; rural areas have not benefited equally from these reforms in terms of quality of life as well as economic prosperity. (Urbanization)
With approximately 40% of the country's population living in rural areas, towns like El Cercado have felt the burden of this urbanization.
El Cercado, among other rural towns in the country, Towns are organised in communities with basic (foundational) infrustructure
is in need of technological advancements to combat economic disparity in an economic climate that provides little opportunity for advancement. Albeit, the community possesses foundational infrastructure and organization, they lack basic necessities; clean/safe drinking water, consistent electricity, sustainable cooking methods, equal access to (local) education. (El Cercado is a town made up of campos - many small communities of three houses or more)
The first step in creating a humanitarian project is to establish a partnership with the local community.
Say the word: Opportunity
Community Partnership [CONCEPT]
In 2014, a team of USD engineers traveled to El Cercado to meet with a group of community leaders from the nearby San Pedro Parish, who proposed a list of top priorities with potential to co-develop sustainable solutions to improve overall social welfare.
Community coming together, developing awareness and desire for improvement= foundation for success and arisal of opportunity.
Projects within scope of engineering students ability.
Parish
Prior to meeting with USD engineers, a group of community leaders had assessed and prioritized community needs.
This awareness of the needs is an opportunity for technological advancement and co-development of sustainable solutions to improve overall social welfare in El Cercado. A community organizer from a local parish served as the liaison between Dominicans and USD engineers during stages of project development in the US.
After establishing this partnership, a list of priorities was communited in a 2014 assessment trip
Top priorities:
Affordable and efficient wood-burning stoves for residential houses
Clean water for household drinking
Affordable water heating solution for sanitation and hygiene purposes
Alternative fuel source
Katie: Do you think we should add the title of each project after each priority to make it clear which project addressed which issue, this may save us time explaining them in detail later. I think that is a good idea. I’ve written the “responses” in a different text box. We can figure a good way to have it on the slide, or we can animate it to appear after we have spoken about the priorities.
These priories were: …
Upon returning to the US, it was decided these needs were within the priorities were within the scope of USD’s student engineers. Solutions were designed to address each need. Rocket Stove, chlorinator, solar water heater, grinder press.
Each of these solutions employed sustainable engineering principles such as utilization of local materials and resources, and easy and simple maintenance.
product designs and implementations employed sustainable engineering principles such as utilization of local materials and resources, avoidance of complex features and concepts, minimizing material diversity and wastes, easy and simple maintenance and repair process.
Over the 2015 and 2016 trips to the DR, USD students alongside Dominicans built 36 stoves. Materials were paid for by the home owner. The stoves can boil water with less wood in FIUASF 15 minutes and greatly reduces smoke inhalation.
Another project is a water chlorinator. In 2015 the pilot installations were completed. Testing was done over the year. By the end of the 2016 trip 8 chlorinators have been installed. The design is highly adaptable to physical constraints, and disinfects the previously untreated water. In 2016 a community health center reported that there was a decrease in water related illness in the communties served by the 2015 chlorinators.
The water heater was designed for a community senior center to address sanitation challenges for the ill. Particularly in winter water is very cold, the elderly would refuse to shower because it caused them pain and could lead to other health issues such a pneumonia. We installed 3 heaters in communal areas. The water remained above 90’F until two hours after sunset.
Local women’s co-op became aware of an opportunity to use crop waste which was a byproduct of a nutrition project. USD engineers came up with a way to grind the crop waste and press it into a briquette intended for burning at the co-op in their own production process.
Community acceptance
Co-implementation
Training
Demonstration to larger community(group)
Overwhelming desire for more projects - 3 chlorinators planned, 6 installed - 15 stoves planned, 19/20 installed - water heater/grinder/press deployed to effect large numbers
We experienced an overwhelming community acceptance of these projects, we attribute this to: co-implementation, training, community demonstration. There continues to be a desire for more project installations which shows the effectiveness of our solutions. A key factor in the success of these projects was pre existing organisation within the community eg: water committee. The community organisation is centered around a parish that has partnered with leaders within the community to promote improved livelihoods.
To contribute to the successes of future humanitarian efforts, we think its helpful to communicate our assessment of our own challenges and opportunity
Notes: Use less words – I think we can also verbalize the solution to each ‘challenge and opportunity’ – section in red
Define success, dependent on factors: these are the core factors
The success of our humanitarian effort is dependent on creating a foundation that enables long term self-sustainability. USD humanitarian engineering return trip confirmed May 2017, a top priority being establishment of concrete training, confidence mutual between both parties, USD assistance no longer needed. [A self-sustaining project will scale] Therefore, success is dependent on a number of factors:
Education (awareness)
Prior to project installations, communities self appointed project managers to spearhead maintenance, further training, and future development.
We measure education/awareness qualitatively through a community prioritization in attitude and through money allocation(demand) to the potential project. Leaves economic development within the community.
Implementation challenges
Challenges to projects properly functioning exist, but design of project allowed for adjustment (Chlorinator valves to compensate varied water flow, stoves various space constrictions)
First off, there is a link between challenges and opportunity. An opportunity may arise out of what was initially deemed a challenge.
For example, a psychological challenge is the perception that there is no way of improved welfare. There is complacency, but with community realization of a problem and prioritization the challenge is overcome and is now an opportunity for improvement. Awareness of improved livelihood spread as the initial projects were implemented and community demonstrations were conducted.
Other challenges were more straight forward such as implementation challenges, but community partnership via the Parish and adaptability of project designs allowed us to overcome these in all cases but the grinder and press. Specifically, the grinder was not designed with hand tools in mind. We were unable to find a Dominican equivalent to corn starch - the planned binder for the briquettes. Additionally, the women at the co-op did not have experience riding a bicycle. Sharing of tools.
Self-sufficiency is a challenge for us as engineers, but it is an opportunity for Dominicans as they can independently iterate the projects as needs for them arise. Each project was developed with an idea that it could be implemented simply and without USD engineers in the future. Each project is designed to be easily maintained and repaired. A manager for each project was appointed and training was thoroughly conducted.
Financing humanitarian projects is a challenge. To combat this, each project was designed with affordability in mind. Having communities raise funds for the projects themselves is an opportunity to transfer project accountability and project ownership.
Same notes as slide 11
Also, the establish supply and demand might be problematic. Might be too much. If we get questions about such a statement we would have to be super prepared to answer how questions. In my mind, the listed items are the solutions/opportunities rather than the challenges. Therefore we can possibly just delete the section on supply and demand.
Katie: I agree, we should delete supply and demand as I don’t know very much about the intricacies of economics and don’t feel like I can adequately answer questions on that. Also, I think that maybe we should say something about opportunities being a challenge in themselves. For example, though there is a lack of skilled workers in El Cercado (challenge), there are members within the community who have agreed to learn about and maintain specific projects (opportunity to teach). Then comes the solution, (project specific training). I think our main challenge here is scaling the project to other rural communities(towns), (specifically incentivising return of educated individuals and financial investment in development).
Last thing, we might want to consider talking about specific challenges for each project? And definitely note that the grinder/press wasn’t a “success” and why/how to improve design/implementation process. Sounds like testing was not complete before taking to DR. I agree with everything. I’m trying to work a good way to present this on the slide. The relationship between opportunity and challenge thing is awesome. I think we should say it, not write it – too many words.
For now I’ll animate the successes as separate text boxes. When we go over them we can have them appear. We should come up with a solid “success” for the finance section
Need to be super careful of wording if using this as our uniqueness: “This type of engineering can be replicated by following this plan.”
Katie: I am also worried about this, I think these factors aiding are very specific and it may be a stretch to say they can be generalized for future projects in rural areas. Maybe we can call them “guidelines” instead as they truly foster the development process but may be adapted differently in other places. I agree. Nice. That will all be in the wording of our presentation.
Note that El Cercado is a town of communities. When we say community we should be talking within El Cercado. When we refer to other rural areas, we should rather use the word: town. Hopefully that’ll make some things clearer
Humanitarian efforts have obvious challenges, yet community organization and development processes can transform these challenges into opportunities. This presentation is a case study of work done in a rural town of El Cercado located in the Dominican Republic. The same guidelines of development implemented in El Cercado can be adapted to other communities with similar community organization.
Ultimately, these are what we consider to be our key factors to success and can serve as guidelines for future humanitarian projects in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere.
Projects were initially identified as needs by the community.
The community appointed leaders for development, maintenance, repair, and self iteration.
Community liaison acted as a point of communication and then fostered collaboration between the community and engineers.
Projects were designed specifically to meet end-user requirements.
Transfer of ownership was achieved through trainings and requirements of financial ownership
This strategy of planning, community partnership and organization for conducting humanitarian projects has shown to breed successful sustainable self-iterating solutions
