Engineering A Better World: Ethiopia Project

We are the Engineering a Better World student chapter at UCLA! Our team has partnered with a community in Ethiopia to design a latrine for a local primary school that serves over 2000 students. Please help us in achieving our target of $15k. Reaching this goal will enable the complete implementation of this critical infrastructure project.

This project began in Winter Quarter of the 2022-2023 school year, making it one of the newest projects at UCLA chapter. We aim to improve health and sanitation at an elementary school in Ethiopia by building a latrine.

First and foremost, the Dire Dawa Education Bureau decided the school and location to implement the EWB Ethiopia Latrine Project. Located in downtown Dire Dawa, the Ganda Garada school has near-about 3000 elementary school students. We have hired a local contractor for construction of the latrine building and the septic tank.

The UCLA team, in collaboration with the contractor has finalized the latrine designs. The latrines have 10 stalls- 5 male and 5 female- with squat toilets. It will also be equipped with sinks. Additionally, there will be two water tanks, and a water pump for continued water access. We have finalized the Bill of Quantities and have reached a final cost of around 20,000$ for the project.

Early this year, we were awarded a grant of 10,000$ from USA For Africa (USAFA) to complete our project. With additional funds raised through crowdfunding, we aim to reach our target and complete the construction of the latrine which has begun initial implementation. After construction is complete, a team of UCLA students will travel to Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, for an assessment trip, making sure that the latrines are in-use and are in proper condition to be maintained.

Check out our website here for more information about our work!