{"id":745,"date":"2013-07-28T08:41:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-28T12:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=745"},"modified":"2019-02-18T15:08:06","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T20:08:06","slug":"seeds-hope-ecuador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/07\/seeds-hope-ecuador\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeds of Hope in Ecuador"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ewb-ecuador\"<\/a>
Charlotte Healy \u201812, one of the many JHU students who made the Ecuador EWB project a success, treasures her contribution as \u201can incredible experience.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A tree grows on the outside wall of a day care center in Santa Rosa de Ayora, a tiny community nestled in the mountains about two hours outside Ecuador\u2019s capital city of Quito. But unlike an ordinary tree, this hand-painted sapling sprouted from seeds of hopes and dreams, and its branches are topped with \u201cleaves\u201d made of children\u2019s handprints.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Santa Rosa de Ayora Children\u2019s Center, a 2,000-square-foot whitewashed structure that didn\u2019t exist two years ago but now rings with the laughter of 35 babies and children. The tree was painted by childcare workers, children, and members of Hopkins\u2019 chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB)<\/a> in the fall of 2012, when the facility opened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good about having played even a small role in making that day care center happen,\u201d says Daniela Martinez \u201909, MS \u201911, a member of Hopkins\u2019 EWB chapter who spearheaded the project from its conception in 2006 to reality six years later. \u201cIt took hundreds of people\u2014literally\u2014to do this, so I get really uncomfortable when people say, \u2018Oh, that was Daniela\u2019s project.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While that statement may embarrass Martinez, it\u2019s nonetheless true, says Michael Karweit \u201964, MS \u201968, a research professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and chapter advisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cEWB projects are challenging because of the length of time over which they are executed. In Ecuador\u2019s case, that took about six years, and that meant many people came in and out of the project both here and in Ecuador. How can any project survive that kind of turnover? The answer is trust and communication, and that\u2019s what Daniela provided. She was trusted and liked by all the partners\u2014from our professional partners and other students, to the people of the community\u2014 through the entire project,\u201d Karweit says.<\/p>\n

Martinez, now an engineer at Environmental Resources Management (ERM), a Washington, D.C.\u2013based consulting firm, was born and grew up in Quito (she moved to Baltimore in 2004 with her mother, father, and two sisters\u2014both of whom are also Hopkins graduates), so she could communicate easily with the Ecuadorean people and she understood their culture.<\/p>\n

Martinez was at a meeting of the JHU EWB chapter when another student expressed interest in \u201cdoing something\u201d in Ecuador. One pressing need in Santa Rosa de Ayora stood out: Parents toiling on a nearby flower plantation needed a safe place to leave their children while they worked. The tiny mud brick house they had been using was \u201cpretty much falling down and quite overcrowded,\u201d Martinez learned.<\/p>\n

In January 2007, Martinez and a small JHU contingent set off to meet with community leaders to discuss how they might work together to design and construct a children\u2019s center there. Back in Baltimore, the EWB team began work on the variety of reports and plans demanded by the EWB national headquarters, which closely supervises and regulates every chapter\u2019s activities. Martinez and a large group of students (she estimates that more than 150 students, assisted by professional engineers working pro bono, were involved from beginning to end) spent hundreds of hours drawing up plans for the project. They partnered with a civil engineering professor and students from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (PUCE).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to manage everything from surveying the site, to making sure the structure was earthquake-safe, to ensuring the country\u2019s and area\u2019s building codes and regulations were abided by, to arranging for the actual construction,\u201d Martinez says. (Construction was done by two professional masons, a field engineer, community members, professional partners, and students from JHU and PUCE.)<\/p>\n

And there was the issue of money. The students got to work writing grants, and with the help of the Whiting School, outside donors, and Ecuadorean counterparts such as the town of Cayambe, they managed to raise the needed funds.<\/p>\n

By the time construction began, in December 2011, Martinez had been hired by ERM, and couldn\u2019t travel with other team members to take part in construction. But she monitored the project from afar, and rejoiced when the Children\u2019s Center finally opened its doors to children in November 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best part of it was all the people here at Hopkins and there in Ecuador working together to make something positive happen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rural Ecuadorian village gets a new day care center, thanks to Hopkins students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents","issue-summer-2013"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSeeds of Hope in Ecuador - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/07\/seeds-hope-ecuador\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeds of Hope in Ecuador - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A rural Ecuadorian village gets a new day care center, thanks to Hopkins students.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2013\/07\/seeds-hope-ecuador\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-28T12:41:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-18T20:08:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/jhu-ewb-ecuador.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"397\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Abby Lattes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Abby Lattes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0244393be370fbc3ead8ec26062e9742\"},\"headline\":\"Seeds of Hope in Ecuador\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-28T12:41:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-18T20:08:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":743,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/06\\\/jhu-ewb-ecuador.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Currents\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/engineering.jhu.edu\\\/magazine-archive\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/seeds-hope-ecuador\\\/\",\"name\":\"Seeds of Hope in Ecuador - 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