Panama Project Meetings

The Panama Project team meets weekly to work on the design, planning and education for their project in Sieykin, Panama.  This is a great way to get immediately involved in working on projects and discussing potential solutions and problems.  There is a place for everyone here from civil engineers to nurses.   The best way to get involved with the Panama Project meetings is to email a subgroup lead or project lead to inquire how you may fit in the process.  Then look over the resources online (see below) to educate yourself on the current progress of the project and show up and start contributing.

Project Leads:  Haley Born & Beth Zetzman (panama@ewbgreateraustin.org)

Tuesdays at 7pm on the UT campus in ACES 2.402 (Map)

Subgroups

Throughout the academic year, the project group does research and meets weekly to brainstorm and discuss the logistics of the project. To be more efficient in our discussions, we have split up into the following subgroups:

Sandfilter Group – This is our more technical group, but if you’re not an engineer, don’t let that scare you off.  It’s a great way to learn! The sandfilter group is currently preparing a workshop for the households in  Arriba so that with the help of team members, each family can build and maintain their own sandfilter.  The sandfilter team is also running test filters locally in Austin.  Three filters have been designed, constructed and are currently operating at members’ homes.  Water is collected from Waller Creek, run through the filters daily and tested for bacteria weekly.  The filters are used to test the effectiveness of the filters under different flow rates, bacterial loadings and oxygen levels.  If this sounds cool to you, come join us!

Education Group – The Education subgroup is refining the way that we educate the Sieykin community. It is our goal to not only work with both the children and adults of the community.  We believe that if the community truly understands the need for these filters, they will use them with greater diligence. This will require our group to determine the most effective ways to engage the adults in the learning process – whether it is through dialogue, hands-on experimentation, or some other method. In terms of educating the children, we are focused on developing activities rather than lecture. We create activities that will engage the children, including songs,  signs, and skits. We believe that children learn best when using their bodies and minds in tandem – and that they will only digest this information when they are directly involved with it. In preparation for our next implementation trip, we will work with local Austin schools to practice the educational activities that we plan to use in Sieykin.  If you are creative and have ideas, please come share!

Outreach Group – The outreach group works on a variety of things from searching out grants, helping with our chapter fundraising events, and making sure we offset all our hard work with a little bit of fun once in a while