In the midst of what the UN’s high commissioner for refugees, Antonio Guterres, called “the worst humanitarian disaster since the end of the cold war,” Oxfam has taken a unique approach to aiding the displaced people of Syria. Recently the non-profit teamed up with iMakr, particularly their 3D printables site MyMiniFactory, to help people in the midst of humanitarian crises with the use of 3D printing.
Oxfam turned to the 3D printing site earlier this year to hash out a method for crowd sourcing 3D printable designs for tackling problems at various locations plagued with humanitarian emergencies. As a result, the two came up with what they’re calling the Donate by Design project, in which MyMiniFactory lists specifications for solutions to a given crises. As designers send in their 3D blueprints for particular emergencies, Oxfam teams throughout the world will print appropriate submissions and test them out in the field. Improvements will then be made to the initial designs, printed and retested, until the final design is complete, at which point, the devices will be mass manufactured to address the problem on a larger scale.
Angus McBride, Emergency Sanitation Researcher for Oxfam, elaborates, “I believe that our partnership with MyMiniFactory, allowing people to ‘Donate by Design’, will be a great new way to allow people to use their skills to improve people’s lives. Using 3D printers for rapid prototyping allows us to work with affected people to trial many different designs and then quickly iterate and improve on the design to better meet their needs.”
Their first project is an attempt to increase hand-washing among Syrian refugees in Lebanon. McBride explains, “According to a 2003 study by Curtis & Cairncross, simply washing hands with soap can reduce the risk of diarrhoea by 47% so if this process results in a new product which encourages people to wash their hands more then it will result in a significant improvement in affected people’s health in emergencies.”
Nick Insall, Project Manager at MyMiniFactory, has announced that, from now until May 27, good samaritans can submit their designs for a hand-washing device to MyMiniFactory as part of phase 1 of the Syrian aid project, saying, “… we have launched the Oxfam 3D Printing project with our first design specification for an efficient and attractive hand washing device. We hope that many 3D Designers across the globe will welcome the opportunity to make a real difference for this charitable cause.”
The world is no longer the disconnected place it once was, with suffering on the other side of the globe irrelevant to the daily lives of the general population. The events that take place in one country impact the entire way of life in another. So, if you’ve got the design skills to help your neighbours in Lebanon, why not head over to the Donate by Design site and read the complete specs for the project and see if you can lend a hand?
Source: MyMiniFactory
