Let's connect the world - but not just virtually | Jorge Cardenas Prieto | TEDxKIT

If we want to solve the problems of this world, we have to connect with each other, exchange experiences and discover new perspectives.

In his TEDx talk, Jorge Cardenas Prieto uses his projects at Engineers Without Borders to show how important it is to be connected in reality, not just virtually. We can achieve much more if people interact and learn from each other.

Jorge Cardenas Prieto studied business engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and was a board member of Engineers Without Borders, a university group at KIT. Their aim is to support people in economically, socially
or politically disadvantaged regions through engineering projects. They focus on sustainable solutions and intercultural exchange at eye level. Jorge initiated the Aguavision project in Colombia and managed it from 2013 to 2016. His project team developed and implemented water infrastructure for a school in northern Colombia. Subsequently, he started the Colombian project Aguajira and managed it for one year, planning a water treatment plant.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Over the past years,

and especially during my experience
at Engineers Without Borders

in Colombia and in Karlsruhe,

I keep realizing that the true connection

comes from exchanging perspectives
and experiences with others.

Perspectives are the ways we see things.

For example, expectations,
goals, opinions.

Experiences, on the other hand,

are activities or events
that are related to doing something.

And in my opinion,

exactly the combination of these two
is what creates a real connection.

And I want to highlight this
with two specific examples.

First, during my first year
here at the studies

at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology,

I founded the student organization
Engineers Without Borders,

that develops technical projects
around the world

to improve living conditions.

Because of my background as a Colombian,

I directly recognized the impact

that this organization
could have in my country,

so I decided with a friend

to start a new project
in the north of the country

to improve hygienic
conditions of a school.

But it was all a process.

We first needed to find a team,

and not just somebody to work with.

We needed engineers
from different backgrounds,

different fields,
with different experiences

to work in a project

with an intrinsic motivation.

And this project was

just simply full of unknowns,

and I was just 19.

I don't know what
I was thinking back then.

But anyways, we continued,

and with this team,

we first needed to define the scope
and the goal of the project.

But in order to do this,

we first needed
to get to know our partners.

This means get to know
what their priorities are,

what their needs are,
what they expect from this project.

So, we needed to first
exchange perspectives.

This means we needed
to really communicate with them

and to start a communication with people
on the other side of the world.

But this was not enough.

It's not just about getting to know them.

It's also about getting to know ourselves,

getting to know the team.

So, what are our capabilities
and what is what we want to do?

What are the challenges
that we want to face?

And so, this exchange of perspectives
was also within all members of the group,

with all the different intentions
that they have and goals, and so on.

And in order to continue with our project,
we also needed to gather information.

So, I already talked about
how we have to communicate

with the other side of the world.

But we're developing a technical project,

so we need to start asking
technical questions

to people without a technical background.

And that means we just need
a lot of communication

and the exchange of perspectives

to really understand
what they're thinking about

or what their expectations are, and so on.

But we realized this is not enough,

we have to go further,
we have to increase this exchange.

And so, we couldn't just do that
by exchanging perspectives.

We had to go there
and start exchanging experiences

and start this face-to-face conversation.

So, we went there,
even twice, to visit them,

to get to know how they are living,

to really have this real
connection with them.

And already 10 months
after we started all this process,

we had this unforgettable
experience of going there

and exchanging
this unforgettable experience

of building what we had planned.

So, we installed water tanks,
water pipes, water pumps.

We improved hygienic conditions,
repaired a lot of things in the school.

But the most important part of it
was working together.

We worked with the locals down there,
and we learned a lot from them.

It was not just that we have
the solution for everything.

We have to exchange with them
about how to solve problems

that arise during the construction phase

or just because of all the unknowns
that we have in the project.

So, it was a cultural exchange tool
to learn from another culture,

to learn how they think, and so on.

So, this was the first
experience that I had,

and so we finished this project.

And the second experience
I want to share with you

is about our second project in Colombia.

After finishing this one,

we started analyzing the possibility
of providing drinking water

to an indigenous community

in a desert-like area
in the north of the country.

And again, we had to go through
a similar process as I explained before.

We had to gather a team,
start this exchange of perspectives,

what their goals are,

what they want to achieve
with our project,

and so on and so forth.

We also had to go there, even twice,

to also, as I said,
to exchange this experience

of living with them,
of seeing how they live,

how they deal with this situation
of not having drinking water.

But this time, the challenges
were much larger.

We're dealing with
an indigenous community,

or I mean, we're working with them.

This means we needed
a translator for everything.

It was just not so easy
as if we just could communicate

in English or in Spanish.

We needed to communicate
through a translator.

And we needed to communicate
through our partners,

which was a foundation that was located
in a different area as this one.

So, the exchange
of perspectives was harder,

and not only about goals and opinions,

we also needed to exchange
a lot about the technical issues.

And this technical challenge was huge.

We wanted to provide water,

and we wanted to desalinate water
in a remote area with no power grid

and with little access to water.

So, we also needed to expand
this exchange with our partners

but also here in Germany,
with experts in the area,

with people that had already worked
with similar projects,

and so on and so forth.

And all these challenges
meant more risks, more costs,

more to be planned,
and so on and so forth.

But we continued exchanging
perspectives and experiences,

until already about a year later,

we finally could start
the first step of our project,

which was to finish the first building

where later our water treatment plant
was going to be located.

Again, we had this
unforgettable experience

of working with the people there,

of sharing how they are living,

how they deal with the situation,

how they actually can live in that area.

And about a month later,

we had the final product: this building.

But unfortunately, exactly at that point,

we had to cancel our project.

And this was not easy for any of us.

But the Water Ministry
of the country contacted us

and told us that they had a huge project

to deliver drinking water
to the whole region,

and their pilot project
was going to be located

at the exact same spot
that we were working on.

So, nobody knew about this,
like not even our partners,

not even the communities down there.

There was no exchange at all.

There was good intentions but no exchange.

And so, after many discussions
with our partners, with the locals,

we decided, "OK. We cannot
compete with the government.

We should not compete
with the government."

So, we decided to cancel the project,

and we gave this building
to a nearby school

to be used as a classroom.

So, we failed on delivering our goal.

But we did not fail
because we built connections,

and through those connections,
we were able to have positive effects.

For example, we connected
different foundations

that were working in the same area
towards the same goal,

and they started working together.

We connected them
with governmental entities

that are also interested
in solving this problem.

But we as a team also learned a lot.

We learned how to deal with
these types of situations.

We learned a lot from the local population
about this cultural exchange.

We learned a lot
about this technical issue

or this technical challenge
that we're trying to solve.

But mostly, what we learned,

I would like to summarize it

by a quote of a local worker
that worked in this building,

which is David.

And he said, "We learned a lot.

But one thing I really learned
was that if we work with love,

then the work is done much better
than when done just with money.

I learned that."

So, we have seen with these two examples

the impact that true connections
can actually have.

First, we can develop
successful projects with this.

On the other hand,

we saw also how external factors
play an important role,

and we might not end
successfully our project,

but we have positive effects

out of this true connection
that we were able to build.

But what I also think or I believe
is that we are also connected

even if we are not actively
searching for a connection.

And I just want you to take a look
outside of this experience

of Engineers Without Borders

and start seeing,
like, another perspective.

And I want to highlight this
with a new example

because last year, I was
at a lecture by Deborah Wilson,

which is a nurse
that was leading a medical team

in Liberia in 2013
in the middle of the Ebola crisis.

And so, she was exchanging
this unforgettable experience

of risking her life

in order to save lives of people
she didn't even know

and sharing the experience of living
with the people together in the area,

and so on and so forth.

And the reason she gave me
of why Ebola arose

was very simple:

poor infrastructure for human waste.

So, communities down there
were having Ebola

because they did not have toilets.

For example, a village
was working with an organization

on improving their hygienic conditions,

and they had no Ebola cases
during that time.

So, and the world was shocked
by this outbreak of Ebola,

and I keep asking myself,

"Can we just simply reduce the risk
of such an outbreak

by simply exchanging
perspectives and experiences

about hygienic conditions?"

And so, we have seen
how this real connection is built,

exchanging perspectives and experiences

and how we can learn a lot from people
from other side of the world,

from other cultures, and so on.

But if I want you to take
something out of this talk,

is that we have so much to learn
by building these real connections,

and we don't have to go to the other side
of the world to do this,

to Colombia or to Liberia.

We can just simply start here, at home.

We can just exchange more
with our colleagues at work

because how many times
have we started a project

that somebody else was already working on?

Or just exchange more with our neighbors
about local situations or issues

that we actually
are all interested in solving.

And I believe that in that way
we can build real connections

and solve not only local problems

but probably world problems
like climate change, and so on.

And the only thing we need is to exchange
perspectives and experiences,

and to do so,

the only thing we need
is the will to do so.

Thank you.

(Applause)