Change, Change and More Change

Since our last post in 2013, the PUC India team is currently only 4 months away from leaving our campus and traveling to Dharapuram, India. We are all so excited! And a little nervous! But mainly excited!

So let me catch you up on all that we have done:

We have added a Civil Engineer and Social Work student to our project, so now we are a beautiful team of nine members.

We have made contact with our corporate sponsor, Ek Disha, who has agreed to fund a portion of our project. So now we are left to raise money for our travel, in-country, contingency, and technical advisor costs. Our plan is to reach out to engineering companies, Indian organizations and restaurants, and family and friends for our remaining costs.

After speaking with the community leader and our non-profit (CASA) coordinator, we have come to an agreement that instead of our initial plan on building latrines, we will be constructing a 4-stall bathhouse for the women and children of the community.
(There is a picture of the current facility they are using under the -Our Project- tab.

Two of our professors in the program have recently returned from India to scope out our project location. So now we know where we will be staying, our transportation logistics, and most importantly we now have pictures of the people we will be serving!

The team is now in the design phase of our project:
Our social work student is currently developing a Tamil-translated needs assessment survey through the Institutional Review Board to evaluate the needs of the community. This information will be used for future PUC teams to continue projects in Dharapuram, India.
Our engineering students are working on designing the bathhouse to accommodate four stalls, ventilation and drainage. They have created AutoCAD and Inventor 3D designs. As well as researching Indian construction regulations, evaluating volume and material quantity calculations and developing a day-by-day construction plan.