Short answer – yes! You don’t have to be an engineer or tradesperson to be a valued addition to the team. An interesting point of distinction with ISF-Ar is that, translated to English, their name is “Engineering Without Borders” rather than the usual “Engineers Without Borders” (italics mine). This deliberate choice was made for two reasons. Firstly, nouns are gendered in Spanish, so the blanket term for engineers reads as “male engineers” – problematic for obvious reasons. Secondly, it was an explicit recognition that, in order to fulfill their mission, a much wider skillset than just engineering is needed. To do what they do requires the dedication of architects, tradespeople, anthropologists, media and graphic design experts, fundraising campaigners and much more. Each HEI group is curated to contain a mix of skillsets to facilitate safe and productive work onsite, and training and appropriate supervision for specific tasks will be provided on-site. While specific knowledge and experience is obviously a plus, as long as you are sufficiently fit and healthy to do on-site work, you’ll be of value to the project. The only minimum requirement is that you obtain a construction industry White Card (or equivalent) prior to departure to demonstrate you understand the basics of keeping yourself and others safe on a construction site.

Most trips are two weeks as this is the longest period of time that many professionals can take annual leave for. If there is a particular project that you would like to participate in, but can’t go for the full duration, please send a message via the website to discuss further. Chances are, we can make it work for you. Likewise, if you have more time and would like to participate for longer than two weeks, please reach out and we’ll try make it happen!

For sure! Whether it is a group of friends, colleagues, a team-building exercise or corporate retreat, HEI is happy to work with you. Subject to availability and minimum viability, we can tailor the project, timing and duration to match your requirements. Please reach out via the website to talk more about what you’re looking for.

Depending on the project, we’ll typically work Tuesday-Saturday onsite, with Sunday and Monday off. You are welcome to see the sights outside of work hours, though it is recommended that multi-day trips are saved for either before or after the project dates. Consider arriving a few days earlier or leaving a few days later if you want to see more of the country while you’re there.

A valid question! It would be great to be able to provide HEI's services for free. However, there are significant costs associated with HEI's operations. While a small organisation, HEI still incurs overheads such as insurances, web development, advertising and accounting costs. To provide in-country support requires flights, accommodation, PPE, first aid and other equipment. To make the in-country experience as frictionless as possible for participants, HEI typically arranges transportation to and from the worksites, as well as food and accommodation where appropriate (particularly for projects in remote locations). Finally, the time required for planning and implementing HEI's operations is a full-time commitment that requires a (modest) salary to be sustainable.

Rather than start new projects from scratch, HEI participants collaborate on pre-existing projects managed by Ingeniería Sin Fronteras Argentina (ISF-Ar). This is a very deliberate decision aimed at avoiding a number of common pitfalls in the humanitarian development sector. ISF has an exemplary approach to project selection and development to ensure that projects are appropriate to the situation and genuinely serve the needs of the community. This takes many months of community consultation, co-design and buy in, that simply cannot be done without a local team. Attempting to assess community needs and design a solution from a foreign country is a common thread in countless failed aid projects. Trying to complete quality, impactful engineering solutions from start to finish in a short window when HEI participants are in-country would be inviting logistical nightmares and rushed, poor quality work. ISF is chiefly a volunteer organisation, and so the pace of construction is largely dictated by the availability of volunteers. For urban projects, this is typically one day a week. By providing a dedicated team working full-time for a two-week period, HEI provides a welcome injection of quality resources that significantly accelerates the delivery timeline of the project. However, the ongoing project management is in the hands of experienced, local personnel. Participants can rest assured that the work will continue once they are gone.

For sure! That’s what I did when I first started, after all. If this is something you’d rather do, just let me know and I’d be happy to put you in contact with the right people to get you started. However, things to consider are: · Are you proficient in Spanish? The vast majority of people in Argentina, including ISF personnel and particularly the people in the project communities, don’t speak English. Can you organise your own accommodation, food, transport to site (often in slums that are difficult to access via public transport) etc.? Can you follow construction-specific instructions delivered in Spanish? Can you collaborate with the local community members? Basically, will you be a net benefit? · Are you going to be contributing sufficient personnel-hours to justify the additional logistics required for your involvement? Most ISF projects are programmed around having volunteers onsite one day a week. If you wish to volunteer on a project outside of that one day a week, this requires ISF organising extra resources to ensure there are materials, plant, project management etc. ready. If you are bringing a full team, or going for a few months, this certainly justified. But if you want to go by yourself for a week or two, it’s worth reflecting how the amount of extra effort required to accommodate you will compare with the work you’ll achieve in a short period of time. HEI was formed precisely to avoid these issues, and to make sure that your participation in the project is a genuine net benefit to ISF and the community.