We’ve finally finished our Annual Report for this year, and are really happy to be able to share it with our supporters. Please email femengrwanda@gmail.com if you wish to request a copy! There are soft and hard copies available.

In other news, an EDM (Early Day Motion) was recently lodged in the UK Parliament in support of our work: https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2016-17/500

Although these EDMs are not often brought into debate, it is amazing to know that our project has been publicised here and hopefully will bring in some further interest.

Half of the FemEng Glasgow Team were lucky enough to attend the IESIS James Watt Dinner 2016 last weekend, hosted by Karen Dinardo and featuring the new inductees to the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame. Speakers included Sir Duncan Michael (Arup) and James Goodfellow, inventor of the ATM and PIN!

Susan Scurlock of Primary Engineer was also awarded an Honourary Fellowship of IESIS, and the team were able to meet her daughter Jennifer who leads Primary Engineer activities in Scotland. Future collaborations are planned with FemEng and Primary Engineer working together to enhance the work of both organisations.

Susan (left) and Karen

Goodfellow and Michael (and James Watt!)

In Glasgow we will be holding an information session soon for individuals interested in joining the 2017 team, with applications before Christmas. Until then, the FemEng committee are pursuing their other initiatives in Scotland and Dublin.

Months of anticipation and planning are over for our Holyrood Reception. In a beautiful setting surrounded by their supporters, the Glasgow team presented their work through photos and videos of the time in Rwanda, sharing real conversations and showing the true impact of this project.

The audience were able to hear from each of us (bar Magda, who is currently in training for her new job in NYC), covering various aspects of the project, from descriptions of the workshops to a breakdown of their costs. The cultural dynamics of the teams were also discussed and we rounded the talks off with the plans for 2017. A key point to take from the presentation was that through the attention FemEng has received from the Rwanda project, activities in Glasgow have been enhanced, and a new branch of FemEng created in Dublin.

A detailed report of the FIR project so far will become available next week, giving more in-depth information that could not be covered during the presentations. This will be free to download and the instructions on how to do this will be posted at the time.

Special thanks first to CH2M, our first official sponsor of the project who kindly donated funds to assist with catering costs at both our launch event and this reception.

Secondly, Sandra White MSP (Kelvin) who enabled us to host this event kindly opened the evening and subsequently lodged a Motion within the Scottish Parliament calling for commendation of the project.

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A great deal of encouragement was received from those who ventured out in the rain to see us, and we look forward to following up with the ideas that were shared that night. It is clear that the FemEng mission is definitely a worthy one, and can only grow into bigger and better things as time goes on.

Please direct any questions or suggestions to femengrwanda@gmail.com. Don’t forget about our Twitter and Facebook too!

Warm Regards from the FIR Glasgow Team 2016