The CREER Panama Program team recently traveled on their third assessment trip and had a very productive week. They spent six days in the community and were joined by representatives from their partner NGO, Health Empowering Humanity (HEH). While the purpose of the trip was to perform a site assessment for the energy and information and communication technology (ICT) aspects of the program, the team found that themselves equally occupied with other tasks. The CREER team from EWB-DC advised the community on their (recent and untimely) water shortage issue, performed a topographical survey and Solar Pathfinder analysis of the CREER building site, troubleshooted the community’s solar system, modeled cell phone signal propagation around the community, met with representatives from government ministries that could bring big change to Hato Rincon, and had several meetings with various committees and leaders in the community. Quite a busy week! Now they are back and proceeding full steam ahead with design efforts, hoping to have a completed alternatives analysis of the building structure by the end of the year. The CREER Panama team is always looking for motivated volunteers to help with design efforts, so check out the events page for information on their next meeting to come see how you can help!
