The Afghan girls\u2019 robotics team has joined the fight against coronavirus by designing an inexpensive ventilator out of automobile parts!<\/p>\n
The team members from Herat created the prototype after the governor of the Afghan province sent out a public plea for ventilators. The region is expecting an explosion in coronavirus cases due to a huge surge in Afghan migrant workers returning to the country from neighboring Iran, one of the disease’s global hotspots.<\/p>\n
The impoverished nation is ill-prepared for any significant outbreak; as of April 2, the country’s two hospitals designated for coronavirus cases had only\u00a012 working ventilators<\/a>\u00a0between them.<\/p>\n In response to this desperate need, the Afghan Dreamers robotics team developed a ventilator prototype which costs under $300 to make from parts that can be easily sourced in the country. “The only thing that we all want to do is help our people and our community,” says tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob, who founded the Afghan Dreamers program. “I work with the girls, but mostly to coordinate. They are the real heroes.”<\/p>\n
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