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This summer, Fort Lewis College students and faculty partnered with residents in Siyowi, Zambia, to build multiple infrastructure projects through the Village Aid Project (VAP).

VAP is a fully volunteer-run initiative. Students and faculty donate their time and skills to support community-driven infrastructure projects.

In its second year in Zambia, the team worked alongside Siyowi community members to install clean water access and solar power for a regional school and clinic. They also constructed a bridge to provide a safe and reliable river crossing in the area for community members to access the school and clinic.

The Siyowi school had operated for more than 15 years without access to clean water. The over with 400 students attending the school regularly, and another 400 attend intermittently they ad to walk nearly 200 meters (219 yards) to a hand pump for water. Working with the VAP team, community members helped construct the new system from start to finish.

“Our goal was to build  12 tap stands and six hand washing stations,” said Sebastian Farrell, a senior Engineering major who worked on the water and solar projects during this summer’s VAP.

Community-led construction and collaboration

As with all VAP initiatives, community members determined the scope of the project and played a leading role in the construction. They will also maintain the system long after VAP volunteers leave.

“It was really amazing to see the community come together and build this whole thing,” Farrell said.

Farrell explained that the work was never about delivering aid to a passive recipient. Instead, it was about combining community knowledge and labor with engineering skills and materials.

“We use the tools that they have. We use their expertise and knowledge with our engineering technology. And we donate our materials and our time, and we teach them how to build the infrastructure,” Farrell said.

Student preparation and long-term community partnerships

Assistant Professor of Physics & Engineering Matthew Klema has worked with VAP since joining 麻豆免费高清无砖码区six years ago.

“I love development work. For me, it's really allowing 麻豆免费高清无砖码区students to have that experience, too. To really engage in a world community and to realize how much of a difference they can make,” he said. “Not all our students are engineers, but for our engineering students, they really get to dive into applying their designs and skills and teach the other students.”

Klema said one of his goals is to highlight individual student strengths and foster their growth throughout the project.

“The most impactful part for me is to see how much of an impact it can have on a student,” said Klema.

Preparation for VAP begins long before students board a plane. Engineering students and volunteers from other majors take part in skills training during the spring semester, where they learn practical tasks such as gluing pipe, building wooden forms, and mixing and pouring concrete.

“We have a class, Engineering 245, which is about technology in the developing world. It gets students to think critically about what development means and what's worked in the past, what's been detrimental in the past, and why we're doing what we're doing,” Klema said.

The Siyowi project is part of a larger five-year commitment. VAP will return to Zambia annually to support on-going infrastructure projects.

“The project we did on the school and clinic campus serves 13 communities in what is called the Siyowi area. Now we're looking to do one larger water system next year in one community,” Klema said.

Assessing community readiness in Mpasu

In the second half of the trip, Farrell joined other students in conducting household surveys in Mpasu, a nearby community under consideration for a future project.

“We visited 65 houses in two days. It was about 25 miles of walking, since there's no cars,” Farrell said.

These surveys are essential to evaluating whether the community is ready and equipped to manage a water system after it’s built.

“They did a household survey to see, is this something you want. What do you use water for? How much do you use? Do you think this community can sustain the utility? Are the people going to work together to pay into it, work on it, and make repairs?” explained Klema. “They’re interviewing the community and setting them up to make their own decision on whether they want it and working with them to see what the context is.”

Documenting the volunteer experience and impact

Farrell is currently producing a documentary about the trip and has received a letter of intent from PBS.

VAP continues to demonstrate the power of collaborative, volunteer-led work to support long-term, community-driven infrastructure. 

Read about . To learn more about the Village Aid Project or support future work, visit fortlewis.edu/vap.