PUBLIC EVENT
Engineers can play a critical role when disasters strike: from providing access, assessing the safety of shelters for those displaced by earthquakes, to providing safe drinking water, and repairing critical infrastructure in affected communities. Engineers are key to developing bespoke and real-time solutions to the problems that the disaster-stricken communities face. There is a need for trained local engineers with enhanced engineering skills, especially in countries vulnerable to disasters, who can assess and respond to these and other engineering concerns holistically and sustainably.
This webinar is part of the Engineering skills for safety webinar series, and will reflect on learning from recent efforts to better support and empower in-country engineers, including ensuring their own safety and security in challenging environments, with stories from a long-term programme in Uganda funded by Engineering X, Skills for Safety programme, ongoing efforts in Türkiye and Syria, as well as a new initiative focusing on infrastructure reconstruction in Ukraine.
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Katie Bitten
Katie is a humanitarian programmes manager, specialising in capacity development, climate change and humanitarian engineering. She leads the RedR UK Technical Hub, which focuses on developing and enhancing the critical skills, knowledge and resources needed for effective humanitarian response globally. Katie has coordinated projects and programmes across sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central America, and is currently managing several of the projects in discussion during the webinar: the humanitarian skills for engineers programme in Uganda; damage assessments and repair programmes in Syria, Türkiye and Ukraine; and, a climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction programme in East Africa.
Dr Dorothy Okello
Dorothy is Dean, School of Engineering, and Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT), Makerere University. Within the department, she is a Researcher with netLabs!UG, a research centre whose model is to strive for a balanced critical mass of research, innovation and commercialisation in communications and networking. She is also Director of Innovation at ResilientAfrica Network (RAN), Makerere University School of Public Health. Supported by USAID, RAN seeks to identify and scale innovative solutions that will strengthen the resilience of African communities. Dorothy is a Fellow of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (FUNAS).
Kuzma Kolesnyk
Kuzma Kolesnyk is a humanitarian and damage assessment specialist from Ukraine. He is currently working as a case manager for the Polish NGO HumanDoc, supporting Ukrainian refugees. His primarily specialisation is in the design and production of metal constructions for buildings and bridges, and he holds a Masters degree in welding construction production. He supported Ukrainian NGOs in the assessment of the buildings damaged by war in the villages in Donetsk region in 2016 and 2018, and is currently working with RedR UK on their damage assessments and repair training in Ukraine
Alaa Albakour
Alaa Albakour works for Violet, a humanitarian engineering organisation working in North West Syria, partnering with RedR UK on earthquake response.