Making a positive impact through engineering

Civil engineer and humanitarian worker John Leung talks to RedR about his first experiences in the field.

After having completed my civil engineering degree and feeling I needed a new challenge, I joined an investment bank in London. It didn’t take too long for me to miss getting involved in engineering, however, having had plenty of good memories and tales to tell from my time working as a civil engineering contractor during my summer breaks. Having worked for a contractor already, I decided to broaden my experience by joining an engineering consultancy. I chose Mott MacDonald based on their global presence, which I hoped would lead to opportunities to travel and experience working overseas, and also on their commitment to supporting international disaster relief charity RedR. 

Reading stories of projects that people had been involved with in developing countries really brought to my mind that a career choice did not necessarily have to mean choosing either a ‘regular’ job with an engineering consultancy, or having to take the leap of faith into an ‘exciting but not necessarily secure’ job in the world of disaster relief, development and humanitarian aid. There were several examples of people working on ‘development type projects’ as part of their regular jobs, and others who were able to take secondments or periods of leave to work for charities through agencies such as RedR.

Great introduction to difficult conditions

I undertook my first overseas work as a volunteer on an expedition to the Amazon Basin in Ecuador where there is a dangerous trend of deforestation due to logging and loss of irreplaceable habitats. This was a great introduction to working in difficult conditions with a team I was totally unfamiliar with, working and living closely with the local community who did not speak English, and doing this for a prolonged period of time (six months). 

From there, I gained further experience in El Salvador with a local NGO and a team from the university I had attended, Imperial College, on an earthquake-resistant housing project.  El Salvador has had a tough history due to both human and natural factors. In recent times, it has been subject to devastating hurricanes and earthquakes, in addition to a terrible drawn-out civil war. A combination of these factors has left many living in very difficult and exposed conditions. 

We were a group of approximately seven, each of us responsible for leading a small team from the local community in works involving the excavation of new pit latrines, washing facilities and working on the construction of a model earthquake-resistant home that the community would then be able to repeat. This was a fantastic experience in gaining the confidence to manage a team on a construction project and was my first true experience of working on a project in an environment where the usual luxuries available on a UK site, such as plant machinery, survey stations, EDMs, concrete mixers and ready-mix concrete trucks, were absent - as well as nice hot running showers after a hard day’s work! 

This early experience was really important to me in deciding to take on my most recent posting through RedR with a charity working in the Dominican Republic. This was a six-month posting on a project involving the construction of a new building to extend the existing school in the community, consisting of two classrooms, a plant room and a toilet block.  My role was as Construction Supervisor, however, this soon expanded to include project management, engineering and accounting duties. My general tasks included managing and working alongside the work team on-site, programme planning, reporting back to the charity on progress and maintaining a record of expenditure.

The project involved the use of several techniques and improvisations that I was not immediately familiar with but, working with the local team, I learned a lot regarding how things can be done just as efficiently without all the usual tools and equipment available in the UK. For example, all the bending of the steel was done on-site by hand using a jig. 

Engineering in Emergencies - a practical guide

One of the biggest challenges compared to my previous experiences was that this project was the first in which I was responsible for leading and planning, in addition to using Spanish as first language.  I was able to gain enough advance notice of the project, however, to minimise the impact of these issues – I was in the process of my GCSE Spanish course through night school and was able to take the exam before departure; I was able to find a senior engineer in Mott MacDonald and with the charity, COPA (the Community Partners Association) to spend some time with to work through some of the design and construction sequencing issues; and I took out a copy of RedR’s Engineering in Emergencies with me! 

Knowing that, like with all construction projects, it is almost impossible to plan for absolutely everything, it was a great relief to have it with me out in the field (even if it did take up quite a large proportion of my baggage weight allowance!).  It was really useful in terms of providing a very quick reference in terms of concrete mixes, for example, compositions stated both by volume and by weight and related to a particular purpose.  While I was there, the charity was also looking at constructing a small incinerator for medical waste and again, Engineering in Emergencies was able to provide a fairly comprehensive guide to how this could be built.

The building has been up and running for just over a year now, including having successfully resisted Hurricane Noel, which recently hit the island. When I first applied for this posting through RedR, at the time, there were two other positions open: one was full time in Pakistan in relation to the earthquake disaster, and another was a one-year posting in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both of which are more typical, core disaster relief and humanitarian aid projects that RedR are mainly involved in.  At the time however, I really felt that this would’ve been a step too far too quickly.  In such a critical situation, it is absolutely vital that the relief worker is 100% prepared as there is very little room for ‘learning the ropes’ in such a situation. By not being prepared, it is actually possible to add to the problems there rather than assist. 

Making a real difference

Now, having successfully carried out this posting in the Dominican Republic and at the same time gaining more professional experience in my day-to-day role with Mott MacDonald in the UK, I really feel as if I am a lot closer to that reality of one day being able to make a real difference when it is urgently needed.

I’m realistic about the fact I am still some way from being able to do it easily and confidently without a worry in the world. I think there are only a handful of hardened relief workers that would be able to claim that; one of whom I worked with in El Salvador and respect immensely. The key thing for me is that with this experience and knowing the potential exists to be able to go and do so much more to make a positive impact through engineering, to actually be able to apply your everyday work to give people opportunities in life -  I think that’s something I never would’ve got working for an investment bank and I’m glad I realised it!  

More Personal Stories