Making global connections

By Dan Hilborn
Published April 24, 2004


The vast divide between Simon Fraser University and the streets of the Philippines will become a little less formidable this spring, thanks to the efforts of a nationwide group of engineering students.

Engineers Without Borders - a group of Canadian engineering students who model themselves after the highly successful Medecins Sans Frontieres program - are working to collect and rebuild more than 200 computers this year to send overseas to help improve the lives of street kids in the Philippines.

"There is a huge disparity of wealth in the world today, and with just a little bit of effort, we can make a huge difference in these young peoples' lives," said Robin Prest, the 23-year-old president of the EWB chapter at SFU.

Prest, a native of Keremeos, B.C. who has travelled in Europe and north Africa, said he became involved in the project because of the stark lack of opportunity available to the young people of the Philippines.

"I have a real moral sense of obligation to help people in the developing world," said Prest, who will join 13 other engineering students from across the country on a trip to the Philippines this summer to assist in setting up the 10 new computer literacy centres.

According to the EWB website (www.ewb.ca/scala), the number of young Filipinos who are dropping out of school is rising faster than the growing number of young people in the island nation. The website states that up to 1.6 million children in the Philippines are deprived of even the most basic form of education, accounting for almost one-third of the entire school-aged population.

The struggles facing the average Filipino student are immense. In addition to the reality of a low-wage economy and an overall lack of educational resources, many kids are forced to drop out of the meagre school programs they do attend simply to help put food in their mouths.

A recent study by the World Bank discovered that most "out of school youth" are in fact born into impoverished families whose household head also lacks basic education skills.

"The families lack of financial resources was ultimately, responsible for forcing youth out of school," says the website. "Often children are required to work to support parents or younger siblings."

The study also found that living conditions in the country make it difficult for a young person to stay in school. "The average (out of school youth) was found to be hesitant of social interaction and/ or integration and displayed poor stress-coping abilities and or control of emotions," said the website. "Despite the adversity these youths face, the study also revealed that the participants largely hoped for an opportunity to return to school."

Sarah Murray, Scala project coordinator, said the Philippines is one of the most computer literate countries in Asia, and teaching computer skills to young people is one of the most viable ways of helping improve their living conditions.

"With basic computer skills, the youth that we are training are getting jobs and finding opportunity," Murray said.

Prest said that the group travelling overseas this summer will focus its efforts on opening 10 new Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centres, and then training a group of local facilitators, who will take over the job of teaching the street kids.

Prest said the group is working closely with the Philippine government to ensure the long-term success of the program. And when the group of Canadian students arrive this summer, they will train the trainers, so that if the program loses funding in Canada, it can continue operating.

The Simon Fraser University group, which is paired with a similar group at the University of British Columbia, is among seven universities across the country working on the project.

The EWB group has now collected virtually all of the 200 computers they'll need to equip the new ITC centres in the Philippines, and Prest is looking forward to heading overseas to set up the centres and start the training program.

And Prest is convinced the program will make a difference in the lives of young Filipinos.

"We're taking the holistic approach," he said. "We're giving the m the technical skills so they can find jobs, and we try to hook them into an education network to get them back to school."

The EWB Scala project will was started at McGill University three years ago and has already won one of the most prestigious international development awards in the world.

Last December, Kofi Annan, the secretary-general of the United Nations, presented EWB with the Global Knowledge Partnership Youth ICT4D Award for Education during a World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland.