Ewb-uw Film Proposal

UW Engineers Without Borders: A Documentary Film By: Jonathan Lee, EWB-UW Rwanda Team Leader, [email protected]

Location: Muramba, Rwanda Desire: To record the collaborative work of Engineers Without Borders members at UW-Madison and Muramban villagers in solving environmental problems concerning the availablity and quality of their water supply.

Background

The community of Muramba lies in the province of Gisenyi in northwestern Rwanda, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo. Muramba refers to the geographical area under the influence of the local Catholic Deanery, including four parish churches. A vocational school teaches community members, many of whom cannot afford tuition at the secondary schools, basic vocational skills. The community of Muramba is approximately 12,000 strong. The community is in a low state of development as is evident in deteriorating water infrastructure and few Project leadership (l-r) included Frederick, Saïdi, Jean Paul Basansanga, commercial or industrial activities. There is evidence Innocent Kabande, Peter Bosscher, and Louis of textile manufacturing and carpentry, and a few private establishments service the community with grocery shops and bars. However, subsistence farmers comprise the majority of the community. Along with UW students, EWB students from the University of Colorado - Boulder also work in Muramba. We have approached UWM to assist us in our desire to create this film. UWM’s film school is highly regarded and their graduates are easily the best film students in the The documentation of... state. One of the film school’s graduating seniors has expressed interest, and has the • EWB-UW’s role in Muramba, Rwanda through film desire to work with us on this project. His • The cooperation between UW-Madison students and faculty with vil- name is Joe Sacco. Joe along with a prolagers on projects ranging from water pipe construction, fuel briquette fessional sound technician from Milwautechnology enhancement, water testing, and many others. kee will be taking on the task of filming • The sharing of environmental information, conservation knowledge, this documentary. and technical background. Future collaboration between Wisconsin’s • The transfer of technological information to the organizations and two largest state schools will look to this schools in the area that wish to continue in-country research and deas a great step toward bettering our socivelopment while also having the information needed to maintain the ety through education. Education focused technologies and systems that UW-Madison has worked on with the on environmental issues that bring both village. These organizations and schools include the Muramban voca- sights and sounds of another culture back tional school, the Kigali institute of Science and Technology, and the to those who are eager to change and betMuramban Water Board. The documents from UW-Madison will be ter our world. translated into French along with containing metric dimensions.

Encouraging UW System Cooperation

Objectives and Goals

Purpose of the Film The medium of film allows the sounds and images of another culture to take a tangible form. This is something that neither words on a page nor pictures in a magazine can explain. Working together over the last five years has allowed the Rwanda group at UW-Madison and the Muramban people to interact in a very unique way. Hand-in-hand, technical and environmental information has been relayed back and forth between our two groups. Through our continued commitment to implement appropriate technologies with the support of the village, we travel back to Muramba whenever we are so able. It is our desire to bring back to Madison, and more broadly, Wisconsin, the story that represents our collaboration with Muramba. We hope to use this film as an educational as well as a promotional tool. Along with a partnership with the African Studies program at UW-Madison, we hope to show this film to students of the university as well as grade school students and parents of the local Madison community. As a promotional tool, the film would be shown at annual EWB-UW kick-off meetings to encourage membership. It is also hoped that the film could be played at the Milwaukee International Film Festival as a highlight of Wisconsin’s film expertise and international cooperation. With this vision in mind for the film’s many uses, we hope to tell our story of our collaboration on issues that regard the local environment as well as the quality of life of the people of Muramba. Jerry cans like the one above are used for carrying the water a household uses. This is a typical jerry can. Through hygiene education we hope to decrease the amount of disease carried in these vessels.

We have been involved in many areas that have needed our technical attention. In July 2005, collaboration between EWB-UW and Muramba focused on the construction of a 5km pipe that connected two new sources of water to the village. With these two new sources, the water supply of the system was increased from 37 liters per minute to 83.8 liters per minute. To continue our focus on water in the area, a water catchment system is being planned and designed for implementation this summer. Preliminary plans include storage for at least 10,000 liters of water.

Renewable energy has also been a focus for our work. In Rwanda, deforestation has degraded the landscape. The government, in an effort to halt this process, has introduced measures to stop timber harvesting and the use of wood as a fuel. Most villagers have stopped boiling water because the wood for the fire made to boil Deforestation has affected life greatly in Rwanda the water is too expensive. Without boiled water, sickness to waterborne illnesses has increased. We have tried to address these needs with a fuel briquetting technology. Local excess biomass can be shredded, dried, and compressed into a toilet paper role size. These briquettes act like wood, and can be used in any stove. Our continued research into improving this technology pushed us into examining mix designs that could maximize heat output while producing the least amount of smoke, and improving upon press designs to compress the briquettes more densely. We have also investigated new shredder designs to decrease the amount of time and energy spent shredding the materials to their desired size. Our efforts in these two areas highlight our partnership with the village of Muramba to address the environmental issues that they deal with. We stay committed to our work and the growth of our continued relationship.

Through collaboration of UW-Madison students with students at the Muramban vocational school, knowledge of fuel briquettes press design was taught and grown.

Expenses

Father John Bossco Musinguzi shows off recently pressed and dried briquettes.

Name PRODUCTION AND GEAR DVCam Tape Stock* Power Converter Plug Adapters for Rwanda Rain Protection for Camera Extra Camera Batteries Misc Production supplies TOTAL

Unit

Qty

Rate

Amount

tapes allow allow allow allow allow

40 1 1 1 2 1

$12 $48 $10 $95 $159 $200

$480 $48 $10 $95 $318 $200 $1,151

travel days travel days days (2 people) days (2 people) days (2 people)

2 2 2 30 30

$50 $20 $50 $3,000 $10

$100 $40 $100 $6,000 $600 $6,840

POST-PRODUCTION 500GB External Hard Drive for Footage Storage* TOTAL

allow

1

$240

$240 $240

MISCELLANEOUS Travel Insurance on Equipment TOTAL

allow

1

$500

$500 $500

PRODUCTION TRAVEL Can Rental to Madison Parking, Gas Meals in Madison International Travel In-Rwanda Food and Lodging TOTAL

PROJECT TOTAL COST

$8,731

*The 500GB hard drive and DVCam Tape Stock will be owned by EWB-UW after post-production.

Special considerations for travel with equipment - Filming Equipment will be kept portable so that it can always be transported by the filmmakers during every leg of the trip in order to decrease the possibility of theft.