For this project, 8 members from Renaissance Engineering (RE) Club partnered with Sai Duan village, a Red Dao ethnic minority village near Sapa, Vietnam. It is a community rich in cultural heritage, known for its traditional Red Dao herbal baths and sustainable tourism practices. This project allowed us to learn about the villagers’ way of life while contributing to their community through meaningful hands-on initiatives.
We worked on four different projects during this trip – the kitchen fume hood, tabletop board game, information wall and videography lessons. In previous recce trips, we observed severe smoke accumulation in the kitchen area due to the house’s design and stove placement. We also noticed a lack of effective communication between locals and tourists, and ineffective showcasing of the rich culture of their village.
Thus, we utilised this trip to address these problems. The fume hood helps to redirect smoke outside the house, which significantly reduces the accumulation of smoke inside the house. The tabletop game crosses language barriers, facilitating conversations between Vietnamese-speaking villagers and English-speaking tourists. Meanwhile, the information wall clearly displays information about the culture and traditions of the Red Dao people, and the videography tutorials empower the villagers to enhance their social media presence to effectively leverage these platforms for attracting tourists.
The projects align with social innovation goals by addressing real-world problems through engineering, contributing to social cohesion and sustainable development. Through close collaboration with the villagers in tackling the problems identified, we learn more about their unique practices and methods, as we observe how they adapt to solve problems along the way.
Visiting Sai Duan was a truly enriching experience. It was deeply inspiring to see how closely the villagers lived in harmony with nature. Their strong kampong spirit was another highlight of our trip; witnessing the villagers come together to help each other enthusiastically was extremely moving. Their warmth and generosity made us feel right at home, while their strong desire to preserve and share their culture with others makes me more motivated to bring more HEAL projects and solutions to Sai Duan. Overall, this journey deepened my understanding of sustainable living and showed me just how vital cultural preservation and exchange are in building meaningful connections. Meghan Tan, Engineering Team Member
About HEAL Lao Cai Trip
Humanitarian Engineers And Leaders (HEAL) is a group of engineering students from Renaissance Engineering Programme (REP), passionate about using their business and engineering skills to positively impact society. The projects undertaken by HEAL align with social innovation goals by addressing real-world problems through engineering, contributing to social cohesion and sustainable development.
