Bridges for rural access

Based in Kigali, Rwanda, Filip brings over 12 years of global experience in structural engineering, spanning bridges, buildings, and infrastructure. His work has ranged from large-scale, complex projects to hands-on disaster response deployments. At Fika, Filip leads the technical delivery of trail bridges and capacity-building efforts across all Fika’s country programmes, contributing to the shift from doing to enabling in the development of resilient and sustainable rural infrastructure.

Filip is also a dedicated volunteer with Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters (SARAID UK), responding to international disasters as a USAR Engineer and Technician since 2018. He serves as a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Structures at University College London and is a member of the IStructE Humanitarian and International Development Panel.

Sophie is a Zambian based civil engineer who is passionate about using engineering as a tool for sustainable development, improving access, and creating lasting impact in underserved areas. Sophie pursued her B. Eng in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Zambia. She, thereafter, obtained an MSc. in Project Management from the University of Lusaka.

With this background in civil engineering and hands-on experience in rural infrastructure projects, she has worked closely with local authorities, contractors, and community members around Zambia. With over eight years of experience in infrastructure development, Sophie currently works as a Technical Assistance Engineer at Fika. In this role, she works with a global team of engineers in providing technical guidance, capacity building, and on-the-ground support to governments and the private sector; ensuring successful planning, design, and construction of trail bridges that connect rural communities to essential services.

Pharles is the Consulting Civil Engineer working with the Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (TARURA). 
Formerly, he was a TARURA Council Manager at Kigoma District Council and the Chairman of the Delegated TARURA Regional Tender Board – Kigoma Region from 2017 to June 2021. From 2021, he was a regional 
coordinator for stone arch bridge construction in the Kigoma region, a project jointly funded by Belgium and the Tanzanian government.

Currently, he is working at the TARURA HQ coordinating stone arch bridges and stone-paved roads activities in the country. So far, he has delivered 490 and 30km of stone-arch bridges and stone paved roads, 
respectively, across the country. 

Pharles is a registered Consulting Engineer, Corporate Member of the Institution of Engineers Tanzania (CMIET), Coopted Expert with the Engineer Registration Board (ERB), and Member of Tanzania Roads 
Association (TARA). He has attended several courses and seminars related to Engineering, Contract Management, and Transportation Management in and outside Tanzania.

Gyanendra Rajbhandari is the Technical Director at TRAC4Change by Helvetas, based in Kathmandu, Nepal. A civil engineering professional with over 30 years of experience, he has worked extensively in the trail bridge sector, providing long-term technical assistance to the Government of Nepal in the development of the rural infrastructure system that delivered 10,000 trail bridges, with an annual output of 500 bridges. He has been actively involved in the development of trail bridge standard designs, technical manuals, training modules, and course materials. His professional approach emphasizes practicality, safety, effective knowledge transfer, cost-efficiency, and the long-term sustainability of bridge systems.

He has played a key role in initiating and supporting the transfer of trail bridge technology to other countries through South–South collaboration, contributing to the global dissemination of Nepal’s proven bridge-building expertise in eight countries