Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/engineers-lend-technical-aid-to-developing-countries Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Spencer Michels reports on how the 8,000 members of the non-profit group Engineers Without Borders are using their technical skills to bring clean water, sanitation and other engineering projects to communities in developing countries. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. JIM LEHRER: And finally tonight, NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels has a Science Unit report on Engineers Without Borders. SPENCER MICHELS, NewsHour Correspondent: Doctors aren't the only ones crossing borders to help those in the developing world. In May, a team of American engineers hiked to a remote village in the mountains of Nepal to figure out how to bring clean water and sanitation to the people of Namsaling.The group from Engineers Without Borders USA was led by its founder, Bernard Amadei, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. BERNARD AMADEI, Founder, Engineers Without Borders USA: How are you guys doing with your projects? SPENCER MICHELS: The French-born Amadei founded the non-profit Engineers Without Borders in 2000 after some landscapers from Belize working at his home urged him to visit their villages to help ease poverty. BERNARD AMADEI: One of them really changed my life. The village of San Pablo, where I noticed a lot of little girls, young girls, who were carrying water — that was their job — from the river to the village, back and forth, back and forth. And as a result, they could not go to school. It broke my heart. And I decided that I was going to do something about it. SPENCER MICHELS: With the help of colleagues and students, Amadei designed a water pump that brought water directly to San Pablo and freed the girls so they could attend school. The experience sparked a change in Amadei. BERNARD AMADEI: For me, it was an epiphany, a way for me to realize that engineering was not just technical solutions or providing technical solutions; it had very strong social components. SPENCER MICHELS: What evolved from the project was a new type of engineering. BERNARD AMADEI: I thought, "Well, that would be pretty neat if I could start a new area of engineering, if you want to call it, small-scale engineering, engineering with a human face, and get students involved."