This team all-female robotics from Afghanistan have made a cheap ventilator from Toyota parts

A team of five female students in Afghanistan have come up with the brilliant idea to make ventilators from Toyota parts. They are using readily available parts, such as the motor from a Toyota Corolla.

The team, named Afghan Dreamers, consists of young girls from Afghanistan between the ages of 14 and 17. They are part of a larger initiative undertaken by Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob to empower girls across the country. Participants for the program are selected from all over Afghanistan based on their entrance exams for the 9th and 10th grade. After that, they are shortlisted into the Dreamers program and even the Afghan Girls Robotics Tea, which represents the country in international competitions. During the program, the girls are given everything they need to help solve engineering problems and represent their country across the globe.

The particular team working on this project consists of Somaya Faruqi, Dyana Wahbzadeh, Folernace Poya, Ellaham Mansori and Nahid Rahimi. They have been working on two prototypes, one similar to MIT’s cost-effective ventilator design, and another which uses parts from a Toyota Corolla. The latter one uses the battery and motor from one of the best-selling cars in the world, the Corolla, meaning the parts needed to make this ventilator are readily available anywhere on the globe. The team is currently fine-tuning their devices and working with doctors to test them. You can read about MIT’s ventilator here.