This image shows a girls robotics team from Afghanistan building a respiratory device out of car parts, in Herat, Afghanistan, on April 8, 2020.
A small group of female students from war-torn Afghanistan has designed a ventilator-like device from car parts to help patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
The teenage team, called the Afghan Dreamers, who are members of an all-female robotics team, had previously been twice denied US visas to take part in an international robotics competition in Washington DC in 2017.
They only succeeded in getting entrance permits after international rights groups and the media intervened, launching an international campaign in their support.
The inexpensive ventilator they have now built runs off the original engine of a car and is intended to be used in caring facilities and hospitals for treating patients suffering from the deadly respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The global shortage of lifesaving machines amid the outbreak - which has reached all parts of the world with incredible speed - gives added importance to the technical achievement of the young Afghan girls.
As of Sunday, 108,867 people have died of the often respiratory complications caused by the virus, and more than 1,777,666 people have been infected worldwide, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Many hospitals around the world are struggling with shortages of ventilators due to the high number of patients being admitted, and some European countries are even said to be making decisions about who to put on life support based on the age of the patients.
Afghanistan, which was invaded by US-led forces in 2001, is one of the most impoverished countries in the world, lagging far behind other countries in terms of living standards and education.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/15765
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