Environmental Engineers, Engineers, Internships

Engineering and environmental engineering internships available in Ecuador in CRACYP’s sustainable rural development projects in the foothills of the Andes. 

CRACYP (which stands for Rural Reforestation and Progress Network Corporation, in Spanish) is a non profit organisation working in over 200 communities on the borders of the Cotopaxi, Bolivar and Los Rios provinces in Ecuador.  

CRACYP’s aim is "Progreso Verde" or "Green Progress" - conservation of the environment and economic and social development of local communities.  We aim to transfer appropriate technology and sustainable alternative agricultural methods, in exchange for community participation in reforestation.  This process also increases the production alternatives and resources of the communities involved, improving their quality of life.  

There are various opportunities for engineering students or graduates to intern with CRACYP.  We need an environmental engineer to calculate the impact on the water supply of our sugar cane farmers’ organic plantations and distilleries.   Engineering interns can help design appropriate technology and train local people in how to use it.

The small local roads leading to various isolated communities are frequently impassable due to flooding or landslips.  CRACYP has various projects to connect rural farmers with fair trade markets – but they need to get their produce to those markets, so the poor roads are blocking these families’ access to a better quality of living and risk negating the incentive to farm organically.

We need engineering interns to evaluate a section of road, design a solution (e.g. bridge, drainage, repair, etc.) and prepare a costing to implement the solution.  Small or simple solutions may be implemented by calling a “minga” (community work party) and working with the farmers to make the repair.  Larger, more complicated or costly solutions may need to be done by the council, but your study is an excellent tool to pressure them into action.  Currently the council are implementing a plan prepared by an engineering student last summer, so when the rainy season starts again, the sugar cane farmers of Guatzaví will no longer have to miss out on the opportunity to earn a fair price for their organic product.   

Engineering and environmental engineering interns will be based mostly in the organic sugar cane farming communities in the foothills of theAndes, a beautiful area with a subtropical climate. 

More details: Download the road engineering information sheet and intern information pack from http://www.progresoverde.org/internship.html or email internship.ecuador@yahoo.co.uk.  Please quote reference SDEngSep11 when you apply.