Electrical, Impact Analysis and Management Team members on the call.
On February 29th, our Electrical Team, Impact Analysis Team and our team captains held a conference call with our partner at ENICLASA, José Benito Rodríguez.
ENICALSA is an NGO in Nicaragua that distributes water pumps to rural farmers across the country. There are currently 35 pumps across the country. These pumps that they are distributing are free to the farmers so, often, the farmers feel guilty when they break down and struggle to repair them.
They approached Sustaingineering because they currently have no system to monitor the pumps and notify the organization when maintenance is needed. We are currently working on a low-cost device that will adequately meet their needs and actually create a positive impact on these rural communities.
This call was a great opportunity to communicate effectively between the two parties. We were able to provide technical updates and Benito was able to answer our questions related to stakeholder needs and any changes to the situation.
While Sajan, our management advisor, spoke with Benito in Spanish, Catherine (Impact Analysis Team Lead) and Simon (Electrical Team Lead) translated the conversation for the rest of the members to understand. Jonah and Eli, our team captains, noted that it was amazing to see this fulfilling conversation happen across languages.
Benito was particularly excited during the call. This project has been four years in the making, so he was thrilled to see that people were still enthusiastically working on it.
“I picked up a couple of words like “Muy Bien!”, “Excelente!”, and “Muchas Gracias!” from Benito and so I knew he was happy with our project’s progress.”
Benito works on-site and sees first-hand how the farmers are impacted by drought in Nicaragua daily. He explained to our team the massive impact that this project will have on these farmers and was extremely grateful to see the team’s passion.
This call was also extremely valuable to our team! Not only did we get to learn more about the project, but it reignited the team’s passions. In particular, the Electrical team was able to see how the gruelling tasks they are completing, which may seem trivial now, will have a direct human impact at the end of the road. Here are what a few of the electrical team members had to say after the interview:
“It helped clarify some of the specifics of the design problem but it was also very beneficial to actually hear about how our team can have an impact on people’s lives.”
“Benito was extremely helpful, patient, and enthusiastic! In my opinion, the most important part was hearing him explain how important and meaningful the work we do at Sustaingineering is, and that we are making a real impact on this design team!”
From a management stand-point, Jonah and Eli noted that it was good to get all of these sub-teams together and watch them collaborate. This allowed the teams to collaborate and understand how everything is interconnected.
We are currently working on acquiring funding to travel to Nicaragua and hopefully implement our project on the field. To learn more about this project, check out our Projects page!
