Engineers Without Borders-USA met on Feb. 8 in Ottensman Hall to inform UW-Platteville volunteers about current and future travel requirements. During the meeting, the main message was that travel is achievable. However, there is a lot of planning that goes into travel for volunteer work, including paperwork, budgeting and taking precautions before and during the time of travel.

EWB-USA released new guidelines about how to proceed with caution and still be able to travel during the pandemic. COVID-19 Orientation and a COVID-19 safety plan have been added to the list of requirements and resources available for student volunteers. These additional requirements and resources include testing locations, travel date considerations, pre-travel medical and security briefing and the use of assistance apps, including the International SOS Assistance App.

Precautions for volunteers while in Ghana are to avoid unnecessary risk; volunteers are not supposed to participate in certain activities, including large gatherings, meal sharing and in-home visits.

UW-Platteville’s EWB-USA volunteer committee was founded in 2007 by Dr. Samuel Owusu-Ababio, whose home country is Ghana. All UW-Platteville’s EWB volunteer work has happened in and will continue to be in Ghana.

All volunteer work has benefited Ghana and will continue to be in Ghana. The most recent trip UW-Platteville students made was in the winter of 2020 to help a school. Potentially, the next trip EWB will make will be in August to close out their work on the previously established school, commence an opening ceremony and finish the documentation regarding it to make sure its operations continue smoothly.

During the potential August volunteer trip, the planning for a sister school will be initiated as well. During the meeting, the student volunteers watched a video regarding the expectations required of them if they choose to travel to Ghana on the potential trip this fall. EWB-USA will be discussing budgeting during their upcoming meeting at the beginning of March.

Student participants left the meeting with optimistic conversations about the potential of their upcoming volunteer work in Ghana.