Bringing Engineering Home: The Visual Resilience Archive in Bamendankwe | Fongwa Vanessa Ngwi

As a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh, I have always believed that the true value of education lies in how we use it to uplift our communities. That is why I decided to bring my research and resources back home to the village of Bamendankwe in the Bamenda 1 municipality. From June 4th to June 6th, 2026, operating through the Youth Elevation and Empowerment Organisation (YEEMO), we successfully launched The Visual Resilience Archive.

This initiative was made possible through funding from the UK-based FeME (Failure Modes of Engineering) network, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, and the University of Glasgow.

In rural and peri-urban areas in Bamenda, communities face severe, climate-stressed infrastructure challenges, ranging from failing farm roads and damaged bridges to blocked community water springs. Historically, residents have relied on informal, oral complaints to local authorities to report these issues. Unfortunately, without structured, physical evidence, these complaints often go undocumented, making it incredibly difficult for local councils to advocate for maintenance funds or prioritise urgent repairs.

To bridge this gap, we introduced the concept of "Frugal Engineering." We trained local youth to conduct structural assessments using simple, low-cost tools they already had access to, like smartphone cameras and measuring tapes. To ensure the training was entirely inclusive and to eliminate the intimidation of technical jargon, we recruited technical facilitators who taught the curriculum in our local languages. This grounded complex engineering concepts directly into the everyday realities of our participants.

True community solutions require true community representation. After consulting with the Village Youth President, we realised Bamendankwe consists of 53 distinct quarters. We initially set an ambitious goal to train 53 youths, one representative from every single quarter.

While we ultimately had a core group of 23 dedicated participants show up for the intensive training, they fully embraced our "train-the-trainer" model. These 23 individuals stepped up as the local experts for their respective zones. They are now equipped to return to their neighbourhoods and teach these exact skills to their peers, ensuring the knowledge continues to spread across all 53 quarters of the village.

The tangible outcome of this three-day workshop is the “Community Resilience Photo-Book”. Instead of relying on word-of-mouth, our 23 Citizen Inspectors are compiling their localised findings into a structured, physical evidence dossier. This comprehensive data book is being handed directly to the Traditional Council of Bamendankwe and Bamenda 1 Council, providing local authorities with the exact, actionable data they need to lobby for regional infrastructure support and direct resources where they are needed most.

This project is important because it changes the narrative of who gets to be a problem-solver. It proves that infrastructure assessment does not always require expensive external experts. By equipping young people with accessible tools, honouring their local knowledge, and building a foundation for them to teach others, we are empowering the youth of Bamendankwe to actively build the resilience of their own community.

Fongwa Vanessa Ngwi | Open Dreams.