Humanitarian Engineering International Placements 2020 Argentina

I was part of a team of 6 students responsible for general worksite duties including concrete rendering, rebar work, trenching and ground preparation for a vehicle bridge and a community swimming pool in Buenos Aires. We were following the directives of our Australian Engineering team leader, Liam Richer, and multiple Argentine engineers so we needed to be able to understand and speak basic Spanish. We would regularly communicate with other volunteers and the local community to ensure site safety including around earth moving vehicles, welders, pits and trenches, as well as monitoring dehydration and heat exhaustion.

We prepared the ground and poured the foundation for a light post and wheelchair ramp at the vehicle bridge project, and finished the concrete rendering of the community building. The vehicle bridge was finally completed in 2021, and the community pool was completed in 2023 by the ISF team. You can check out the final bridge project here: https://www.isf-argentina.org/en/proyectos/vehicular-bridge-over-las-piedras-stream and the community pool here: https://www.isf-argentina.org/en/proyectos/community-swimming-pool-1