![\"engineerchagingworld\"](\"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/files\/2018\/09\/engineerchagingworld.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sometimes you meet people and just know they\u2019re going to change the world someday. Moses Clark has a head start on them.<\/p>\n
Clark has spent the better part of the past two years juggling a full-time job as a project engineer for R&H Construction with classes at Multnomah University, where he\u2019s been pursuing a master\u2019s degree in international development and social justice.<\/p>\n
But for three months last summer, with the blessing of his employer, he headed to Africa to use his back-ground in design, construction and project management to help a global nonprofit called Grace Ministries International develop plans to build an agricultural resource center in Tanzania.<\/p>\n
For Clark, who grew up in Cameroon, getting involved in the project was about more than simply paying it forward or racking up cred-its toward an advanced degree.
\nAfrica has a long history of famines, and more than a quarter of its population qualifies as under-nourished. The situation, however, actually has improved since 2008 due in large part to efforts made to increase food production through farming, according to nonprofit group Our Africa. With the continent\u2019s population expected to increase in the future, continuing to place an emphasis on agriculture and farming to battle hunger is critical.<\/p>\n
Success in farming doesn\u2019t just benefit local populations, though. Exporting crops means more money for farmers as well as big steps
\nfor Africa toward meeting goals to become self-sustaining by 2030 and completely free of dependence on foreign aid by 2050.<\/p>\n
But farming \u2013 and being a farmer in Africa \u2013 comes with a complex set of challenges.<\/p>\n
Easily accessible land can be hard to find in areas like Tanzania. As a result, many farmers are forced to obtain land in remote areas that often can\u2019t be accessed by motor vehicles. With limited financial resources, own-ers of small farming operations can\u2019t afford to buy tractors or other traditional farm equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou pack in bundles (of your sup-plies),\u201d Clark said. \u201cPeople put (crops) on their heads to carry them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the farmers in Africa run small operations on limited land. That means they need to make the most of every square inch of soil. But constantly replanting the same crops in the same places can quickly deplete soil of valuable minerals and nutrients, resulting in low crop yields, Clark said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where Grace Ministries\u2019 agricultural education center is expected to make a difference. Once established, the center will conduct research to determine which types
\nof crops grow best in different parts of the area and then make seeds for those plants available to local farmers, while also teaching them techniques, such as crop rotation, to improve the quality and quantity of their crops.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people are already farmers,\u201d Clark said. \u2018They just need to learn techniques to grow more, and grow more efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The agricultural center wasn\u2019t the only project Clark worked on while
\nin Africa. The first stop on his itinerary was Cameroon, where he helped design a two-story physical therapy building that will allow a hospital on the edge of town to expand its ser-vices.<\/p>\n
Clark would like to return to Cameroon in the future, he said, to help the hospital continue to grow to better serve its patients. As for the agricultural center, construction of the building is still down the road. Grace Ministries must first find about 100 acres of land for the project, build a larger kiln than the one available in order to produce bricks needed for the building and drum up additional money.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a farm that Clark helped start with some of the locals in Tanzania. His partners are running the operation, including testing several different types of papayas \u2013 grown from seeds obtained from ECHO, another global agricultural nonprofit in the area \u2013 to determine which species of different fruits thrive during different growing seasons and conditions.<\/p>\n
For now, though, Clark is busy working on R&H projects and preparing to walk across the stage to receive his master\u2019s degree, even as he looks forward to the day when he can again apply the lessons he\u2019s learned on construction sites \u2013 and in classrooms \u2013 in Portland to more projects in Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to see what the future holds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes you meet people and just know they\u2019re going to change the world someday. Moses Clark has a head start on them. Clark has spent the better part of the past two years juggling a full-time job as a project engineer for R&H Construction with classes at Multnomah University, where he\u2019s been pursuing a master\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/djcoregon.com\/skilledmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}