Congratulations to our very own Design Engineer, David Shodeke who picked up the ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award at the IStructE NW dinner this weekend.

The award recognises David’s volunteer work with Engineers for Overseas Development (EfOD) in Uganda. Since January 2016, David has been helping to design and plan the construction of Kathy’s Centre. Kathy’s Centre is a collaboration between two charities, Act4Africa and EfOD and is a legacy project that will bring together issues such as HIV prevention, gender equality, and the rights of women and girls to a healthy life, an education and an ability to prosper.

In November 2016, David sacrificed his own annual leave to fly out to Uganda for two weeks to help with the construction on site and gather information for the design team back in the UK. Since then he has continued to work on the project from the UK and tremendous progress has been made on site with David’s input.

The process has been extremely challenging for David as there is often limited information on the quality of materials, ability of labour and even the conditions on site which has resulted in David commiting a huge effort in overcoming these challenges and making the project a success. David has also volunteered closer to the home with the Contact Theatre, University of Salford and as part of our partnership with local schools.