Emmanuelle Dorsival, a second-year student and president ofGaSole Cluny, looks back on the 2019 humanitarian trip organized by the Gadzarts Solidaire association. This summer, Emmanuelle and her team traveled to Colombia to put their engineering skills to work for the residents of the village of Monterilla.
It all started with a meeting.
Each year, a new team develops a project and decides on the destination for the humanitarian trip. This is how the 2018-2019 team came into contact with the Fundesia association during a weekend of meetings with former students of the school.
Fundesia (Foundation for Integral Development and Agricultural Research) aims to rebuild lasting peace in the Cauca region of Colombia, an area particularly affected by violence and poverty. This organization takes concrete action on the ground in the areas of education, social welfare, health, and the environment.
Several actions were taken to obtain the financial and material support necessary for the trip.
The proceeds fromthe Grand Bastringueare donated each year to GaSole to fund the humanitarian trip. Although this represents a significant portion of the funds raised, the "Gadz'arts solidaires" team works hard all year round to organize events. One example is the event in May 2019, when they teamed up with theMaïsha Africaassociation, chaired by Sonia Rolland, to organize abig bingo game in the Griottons hall. Then all the campus musicians joined forces to fill the Notre-Dame de Cluny Church with classical music for a charity concert.
A few anecdotes
The GaSole team spent three weeks in Monterilla. The goal was to dig trenches to lay pipes to supply the fish farming ponds. They also brought supplies for the village school and began raising awareness about waste management.
Emmanuelle shares a few anecdotes:
"When we arrived in Monterilla, we discovered a network of pipes that was already in place but unknown to the residents. So we began mapping the condition of the network. Our manager was initially surprised by these plans, but then told us he appreciated our thoroughness. Indeed, we weren't just there as laborers; we wanted to put the rigor and organization of the Arts et Métiers engineering students to good use. At the end of the work, we provided a detailed plan of the old and new water networks, which will help them in the event of a leak.
In this human adventure, personal and professional lives are closely intertwined. We worked with the locals during the day, then danced together in the evening. Our manager never really established a hierarchical order or distance between us. That's one of the things we really appreciated !
Beyond discovering the culture and forging human connections during this humanitarian trip, the engineering students were able to share their experience and knowledge acquired during their training in priority management and make recommendations for the next stage: wastewater management.
And what happens next...
The destination chosen by the new team will be announced at the conference organized with the CCICon November 19, 2019.
Copyright: GaSole Cluny
