• OBEC seeks to make communities aware of transportation systems that will encourage sustainability of the environment in the long term.
• Regarding energy, OBEC seeks to make people aware of how various energy sources impact the environment and also enables people to adopt practices which will enhance sustainability.
• Design, as a theme, is thought of in terms of the built environment. OBEC believes that positioning, material selection and functionality should reflect the desire to cause the least harm to the environment and to the people who use it.
• Habitat is thought of in terms of the air, water and land environment, these need to be used in a way that will secure their usefulness even in the future.
• Sustainability under the theme of food, seeks to enhance food production methods that will foster sustainability given the fact that there is pressure in food production to match an ever-increasing demand for food production in the world.
• Natural capital is the potential of natural elements to meet human needs. To ensure sustainability of natural capital OBEC seeks to make communities aware so that they preserve soils and protect waterways sustainably.
• The theme waste reduction aims at encouraging communities to reduce, reuse and recycle wastes whenever they can. It also encourages communities to sort their wastes before trashing them.
• Health, as a theme, is directly linked to the quality of the water, air and soil. Preserving these will in some way secure a healthy community and also reduce other costs.
• There are various activities and endeavours where people seek to have fun and relax with friends and family. Communities can enhance forms of recreational activities, like frisbee, horseback riding, that bring pleasure and bring the least harm to the environment.
• Sense of place, as one of the themes, refers to belonging, sense of community and stewardship that community members have towards a given area. OBEC believes that people feel they belong when their neighbourhood or city meets their needs and they interact with other community members. Some sites can inspire a sense of place and this feeling often leads to greater stewardship of the environment which in the end leads to sustainability.

OBEC works with people from different backgrounds and occupation; students, accountants and many more. The organisation targets community members, especially young people from elementary and high school. This is because OBEC believes that when the youth are trained and made aware of sustainability culture, they will carry it on to adulthood and thus Ottawa will be a sustainably managed city. More information is found on their official website: , additional information on what they have done and some that are still underway, can be found at the following websites: , , , and . In the near future, OBEC seeks to carry out and establish Sustainability-culture hubs even outside of Canada and identified Malawi as one such area considering that my colleague Chimwemwe and I are already in Malawi and we have worked with OBEC and shared materials before.

Figure 1: Alinafe (second from right) in community discussion on Energy

As part of the program we were involved in various activities with OBEC. Such activities included holding meetings with community members, attending council meetings with OBEC’s executive committee, carrying out surveys, managing data and drafting reports and attending fun fairs where various people and organisations displayed their works to the entire community. Our participation in the various activities was very flexible: depending on the activity, we would work on our own and according to our schedule while at other times we worked together with the entire team.

We conducted many activities together with OBEC’s team, here I will share only two of them. One of the activities was the Hintonburg Sustainability Project. The project aimed at first making the community aware of OBEC and its purpose of instilling sustainability culture; secondly, to train facilitators (who were mostly volunteers) to guide the community members in choosing and carrying out small projects of their desire; thirdly, to carry out community meetings with the community members; fourthly, to help the community members organise themselves in establishing committees of their own to monitor their various projects so that even after the project was finished in Hintonburg, the community would still carry it on.

Ten facilitators were trained and Chimwemwe and I were part of the team of facilitators being trained. Most of the facilitators were from Hintonburg, this was strategic, as people sometimes

Figure 2: Chimwemwe (first from right) in Hintonburg community discussion on Transportation

respond better to activities where there are local and familiar faces. After the training, word was sent out to the community through the facilitators themselves, posters, OBEC’s website, local newspaper and other channels. The awareness and choosing of projects meeting was done for two days in the evenings from 7 to 8 pm. Cumulative attendance for the two days was 45 people (which we considered encouraging considering how people are).

After being made aware, the community members chose small doable projects guided by the nine themes. The attendees who were interested in being contacted later left their email addresses per our request. By the time we were leaving for Malawi at the end of the mobility period, the community members were contacted and OBEC facilitated a community meeting with the interested community members. We continue to link with OBEC and we have recently been updated that the Hintonburg community members who participated in the 2-day meeting are now working towards implementing the projects. They have developed posters which are being circulated to encourage their community member to engage in various projects of their choice, which were developed earlier.

Figure 3: Poster for Hintonburg community

Figure 4: Jim, Alinafe, Colleen and Chimwemwe Arts Park showcase fair

Another one of the activities we did with OBEC was taking part in a fair which occurred in Hintonburg community. Community members, organisations and various artists were showcasing their best works. OBEC took an opportunity to also showcase its various activities including the Hintonburg Sustainability Project. The timing was perfect since the showcase closely followed the meeting we had with some of its members during the 2-day meeting. My colleague Chimwemwe and I were also part of it. We were privileged to interact with various people and organisations including one of the people contesting in the past elections.

Figure 5: Jim, Alinafe, Chimwemwe and Colleen at Arts Park showcase

At the end of our stay OBEC’s chairman, Jim Birtch, prepared a farewell meal where we were presented with certificates of appreciation. To this day, we remain in contact with OBEC.

Figure 6: (From left) Chimwemwe, Jim and Alinafe with certificates

So, to take a small step back, it is first important to explain what my research is about. My project takes a multi-dimensional approach to improving access to safe drinking in the District of Longido in Tanzania, specifically focusing efforts in Longido Town. Longido is a rural area, comprised of predominantly Massai residents, with a history of challenges related to water quantity and quality. As Virginia Taylor, a retired ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University instructor with over ten years of experience working in Longido put it, “when you look at the issues that people [in Longido] are addressing, water is always paramount. It is always the first issue that people talk about.â€�

Figure 1 – From left to right: Safari (Filter Fabricator), Liston (Business Manager of SWCEA), Robbie (Me), Kim (Founder and Owner of SWCEA)

My research specifically focuses on the water quality portion of those concerns, with an overall goal of improving health conditions within the community. So, to meet the need for a solution to this pervasive and worsening challenge, my project is partnered with a local manufacturer of ceramic water filters called Safe Water Ceramics of East Africa (SWCEA). A ceramic water filter is a simple water treatment technology with well documented bacteria removal effectiveness, which makes them a great candidate for reducing the prevalence of diarrheal diseases (like Cholera or E. coli poisoning) resulting from the consumption of unsafe water. One major issue, however, is the cost per unit is far too high for many individuals to afford, hindering its long-term sustainability. Therefore, the technical element of my research is focused on studying the mechanistic behavior of the filters, its current disinfection-enhancing additives, as well as alternative additives, both independently and in combination with the filter, so alterations may be made to the manufacturing process to reduce costs. Our project incorporates science and data-driven decision making into a localized and human-centred implementation framework, relying on leaders in health and education sectors in Longido to enact the change that they want to see within their community. Sustainability is our number one priority. To learn a little more about the project, please see Dr. Onita Basu’s (supervising professor) webpage: /basuresearch/tanzania-water-hub/.

Figure 2 – Me and SWCEA staff (2 left-most adult women) at Longido Modern after donating filters to the school.

Once I arrived in Tanzania, I proceeded to spend the following three months conducting my research in two

Figure 3 – Donating one of the filters to the maternity ward of the local health clinic in Longido

areas of interest; call them social and technical components of the work. In terms of the social, because of a very generous donation, I had the opportunity to introduce a total of 14 filters to 3 schools and a local health clinic. The provision of the filters was accompanied by educational programming on filter use/maintenance, the importance of safe water consumption and proper sanitation practices. The programs were run by SWCEA and me, and were facilitated largely by our partner organization, a local and long-standing NGO called Tanzania Education and Micro-Business Opportunity (TEMBO). This research focus accounted for approximately 30% of my time and had the specific objectives of
introducing the concept of the filters to the community to create an appetite for more, as well as to instill the value of drinking clean water upon children and young adults. The reception from the community was unanimously positive, and I am very excited to learn of the outcomes in the future.

Figure 4 – Ceramic Water Filter being tested at NM-AIST Laboratory

Moreover, in addition to the social work that I was able to do, far more of my time abroad was spent
focusing on the technical elements of this research project. In particular, I worked in a laboratory at our partner academic institution, the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), running experiments on filters that I had made with the staff at SWCEA. Together, we had made a large swath of filters with different input materials to learn if cheaper alternative materials have comparable or sufficient bacteria removal to what is currently in use. At the moment, it is too early to say whether any large-scale changes may be implemented at the factory, however the results indicate that there is great cost-saving potential.

So, how did all of those thoughts and emotions play out in the end? In summary, I don’t have a good answer. Essentially none of my confoundment has been satisfied, and indeed, an entirely new host of questions have been added to the mixture tantalizing my mind. Having said that, there are certainly some important lessons that I have been able to take away from my experience which will be beneficial in the future. My first lesson learned is that the language chosen to communicate an idea is paramount to positive reception. Scientific evidence acts as a very good basis from which to explain why a concept is valid, however personalized messaging, simple language and, most importantly, the appropriate messenger can be the difference between someone understanding what is said and believing in it. The second lesson that I learned is that progress is slow, and patience is an incredible virtue. Most things do not work out as expected, and almost everything requires more than one try before anything happens. But this is simply the nature of this work, and incremental change is the most sustainable strategy for long-term development.

My time as a QE scholar benefited me greatly, and I am very thankful to have been awarded this opportunity. I was able to improve my communication and leadership skills, learn more about the culture and community within which I am working, build strong connections with partner organizations and other academics and progress my research substantially. Though not without its challenges, my summer in Tanzania was very positively impacted by my participation in the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship program and I feel I learned a lot.