All-girls robotics team in Afghanistan hopes its ventilator prototype will save lives

The Afghan Dreamers, an all-girls robotics team, is using car parts found in marketplaces to create a ventilator prototype that could change the health care system in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Dreamers have competed in the United States, where they won an award for courage. "It made us really happy and it's made us work even harder," team captain Somaya Faruqi, 17, told NPR's Diaa Hadid. There are only 200 working ventilators in Afghanistan, with many of them hand-operated, and the team has been asked by doctors to create a mechanical device. "Even if it saves just one patient's life, I'll be happy," Faruqi said.

The team has been developing a prototype for about a month, working off of an open source designed at MIT. Dr. Douglas Chin, a surgeon in California, has been helping the team from afar, "kind of walking them through what some of the clinical issues are around ventilators, things like the pressure," he told Hadid. "You want to make sure that the ventilator itself is not causing harm."

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Unable to buy pieces online or at electronics stores, the girls found a way to get around their lack of traditional components. "Most of the material we're using is actually from Toyota Corolla car parts" found at markets, Faruqi said. The team is almost finished with the prototype, and if they are successful, it's estimated each ventilator will cost just $200 to make.