COLLEGE STATION, Texas — For 'Engineers Without Borders', a chance to make a difference around the world is something too great pass up.
"The goal of the organization is to go to these international communities and help them with problems that deal with basic needs," said project lead Ruby Ross.
Recently the Texas A&M chapter began work on a new project in the rural community of Matyazo, Rwanda.
The issue the organization says the community is facing is a lack of sanitary latrines, or even latrines at all.
"There is no plumbing or anything like that, its just this outdoor pit in the ground. Sometimes there will be a structure around it and sometimes it will just be a pit in the middle of nowhere," said Ross.
Over winter break, three students and two professional mentors visited Matyazo.
The purpose was to assess the communities and the state they were in. While there, they spoke to people to find out steps they can take to help.
"That way it wasn't just us coming in saying, 'okay, we're going to build all of these latrines for you and you don't have a say in where they go, what they look like or how they are used,'" said Delanie Powell, an Engineers Without Borders chapter member.
Since the team has returned to the U.S., they've been hard at work finalizing a latrine design to put them in 500 homes.
"What we're going to be hoping to do is design maybe 2 or 3 different latrines of all different levels for costs and the different resources that are just available," said Ross.
The group already has plans to visit Matyazo again next year to put in the latrines and show the community how to build them.
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