NPR, August 19, 2021
The team was formed by about a dozen teenage girls in the western city of Herat in 2017 with the support from Roya Mahboob, an Afghan tech entrepreneur who heads the Digital Citizen Fund, which runs STEM classes for girls. The team has grown to more than 20.
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When COVID-19 hit last year, Afghanistan was extremely vulnerable. To cite just one example, the impoverished country had a small number of ventilators, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
But the robotics team, also known as the
Afghan Dreamers, reached out to MIT, which helped come up with a design to build ventilators from scratch. The girls relied on used parts from Toyota Corollas and put together a prototype that cost just a few hundred dollars to make.
They built it amid the pandemic and while fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. In an interview with NPR last year, Farooqi said, "even if it saves just one patient's life, I'll be happy."
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I don't know whether their ventilator went into production, but just the fact they put one together
out of Toyota Corolla parts (!) is impressive. These girls all need to get out of the country and given scholarships.
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