5 September 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Students from Wichita State University are bridging a gap in an Ecuadorian Village, Mercedes de Agua Sucia in Manabi.
“It really is very important to us,” computer engineering senior Nicolas Reyes said. “Our education and our skills that we’ve learned as engineering students, to give back and to help people who need it.”
Over the summer, they went to the village for six days to survey, gather data, and start working on a plan to build a bridge.
“It’s not something you put on a resume,” electrical engineering sophomore Everett Vasquez said. “It’s not something to make them look good for any of us, but it’s a need for them that they need for their community. It’s really easy as an engineer to think about your GPA, think about your job applications, think about your resume. But being there, it was very much just like nope, all we’re here to do is serve these people and love them well and just be able to use our resources that we’ve been given to just bless them.”
The makeshift bridge in the village now is unsafe, made out of bamboo and metal wires.
“It’s really their only connection from their village out to the main roads in the main cities,” Reyes said. “Their kids cross it every day to go to school. They cross it to take their crops and their harvest that they live off of. They have had incidents before where people have fallen or that sort of thing. So just seeing that and hearing those stories. I mean, every day when we were there, we would see the kids leave for school. And, you know, I just knew we had to improve that
Three students and a licensed engineer are working together to get it done with those in the village.
“Serving others is fulfillment for you in such a different way than I think anything in life can be, but also its fulfillment for other people who might not be able to have that option, so it’s just really cool to get to do that,” Vasquez said.
The team is in the process of getting supplies, recruiting more members and setting a plan for the bridge.
“The feeling, it’s super rewarding,” Reyes said. “A lot of late nights studying and a lot of stress. It just seems like it all paid off, and to witness them and how grateful they were to us and how welcoming they were, I just knew I chose the right field.”
The materials and travel will cost anywhere from $40,000-$50,000, and the team is working to raise that money. You can donate here.
“It’s gonna get done. It has to get done for them,” Vasquez said.