In 1996 the West Africa Project began as a way for engineering students to practice what they were learning in a service application. After months of work, a team of students and faculty traveled to Burkina Faso, Africa and installed a photovoltaic power system. The team returned with the vision to continue similar work but to expand the work locally as well as abroad. In addition, the people involved changed from all engineers to a mixture of majors, each using their individual skills to meet all the needs more completely. God is enabling us to meet real needs today, while we are learning to be Kingdom builders for a lifetime.
Young adults work in a garden, where they earn a salary and learn improved agricultural skills.
Messiah students are designing human powered pumps to draw water for irrigation. One goal is for participants to learn this pumping technology and recreate it in their home communities. Another is to create designs that exercise different muscle groups, thus allowing the pumpers to do physical therapy as they work. Another group of Messiah students is developing a deep well and solar powered water distribution system to provide drinking water for a new school for the disabled. At this school, men and women participate in internship programs and gain marketable skills.