61 projects worldwide to receive funding already, while IEEE Philadelphia Section invest in Rwanda

The HAC/SIGHT initiative of IEEE with projects focusing on the fight against COVID-19 was highly welcomed by the IEEE members, with 61 projects worldwide to receive funding already.

23 projects of this initiative focused in IEEE Region 8 and more precisely in the African continent of the region, with the majority of those (22) projects to be from Sections of the African countries of the region. However, IEEE Philadelphia Section invest its interest of the HAC/SIGHT project in Rwanda, with its projects to be funded already.

From what we had previously seen when 10 more HAC/SIGHT projects had been funded, the IEEE members from the African continent took the advantage shared from the IEEE itself through this humanitarian initiative, to benefit the community in a period of crisis.

The new funded projects.

 

IEEE Zambia Section

  • Nakonde COVID-19 Response

A recent survey taken with 372 people in the Nakonde District in Zambia showed that only 10% of the people have a clear understanding of COVID-19 and its impact and only 3% have access to protective materials such as face masks. This project team will design, produce, and distribute high efficiency, reusable face masks to prevent the spread of the virus. They will also develop educational materials to equip the community with important measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

 

IEEE Lebanon Section

  • 3D Printing vs. COVID-19

In light of the current lockdown measures to contain COVID-19, personal protective gears such as face masks and shields are in high demand, but difficult to supply in enough quantities and fair prices. This issue is accentuated in Lebanon due to an economic crisis and currency devaluation that caused limitations on imports and inflation. Our solution creates a 3D printed face shield, based on an optimized model that takes only ~2 min to produce, instead of 6 hours. The team already started working with the main COVID-19 response medical center (The Rafik Hariri Hospital) and provided them with 1000 face shields, and the goal is to provide another 3000 over the next 3 months. Looking forward, this initiative intends to build on community support by creating a community of people interested in 3D printing, owning a 3D printer and capable of participating in the production of face shields for their community. This community and platform can grow beyond 3D printing face shields to a 3D printing market, connecting 3D printer owners, looking for self-employment freelancing and individuals looking to purchase 3D printed items at fair prices. The platform will also be coupled with social media and YouTube channels to share tutorials and know how in 3D printing, which would grow and improve the community.

 

IEEE Nigeria Section

  • Production of Locally Made Hand Sanitizers  and Health awareness Program for Ajegunle Slum

With the recent covid 19 pandemic affecting Nigeria and Lagos state being the epic center, there has been scarcity of basic health support services, especially hand sanitizers for home use and public places such as ATM center, public transport and hospitals. This is why we want to provide training for the women in this communities on how to produce alcohol based hand sanitizers for their use in homes. This is important because of the lack of water and sanitation in these places and with the use of hand sanitizers, these will provide a great protection for their families . This project will be located at the AJEGUNLE area of Lagos state which has over 56.6% of slum dwellers in Lagos state living in very poor economic condition. As the state government plans to ease off the lock-down and open the state, it is mandated for homes to have these hand sanitizers, but unfortunately families in this community can not afford to buy such, hence the need to train their women on how to produce one for their use. Most families can not afford to provide basic needs for their homes, and if there are no health actions taken to avoid community spread of the corona virus, the result will be very devastating. With the knowledge gained through this practical training program, we will be able to support them in limiting the spread of this corona virus, as families will be able to make use of these hand sanitizers even in the absence of clean water.

 

IEEE Uganda Section

  • Imvepi Refugee Settlement Camp COVID 19 Compact Response Project

This project proposal intents to reduce/avoid spreading of COVID 19 pandemic in among the refugee communities in Imvepi Refugee Settlement Camp. The project proposers envisage that once Imvepi Refugee Settlement Camp compacting COVID 19 strategy becomes a success story then this project can be replicated in other refugee camps around the Country. The project intents to compact COVID 19 pandemic by designing and constructing/making Face masks, foot-operated sanitizer/water stands & make liquid soap. This project will look at skilling and equipping the stakeholders on how to make the items. They will become a train of trainers were they will share their skills in making the items in their communities. These volunteers shall be empowered to make their items and selling them to the host communities and other districts in Uganda. This means by imparting these hard skills to the tailors, technicians and soap makers will make them earn money in the long run long after the project has ended. They will become trainers of trainers to empower others with the same skills so that they become financially empowered and stable to look after their families.

  • The Hands Free Opening Door System

During this Covid19 pandemic situation, it is very import to avoid touching high-contact places such as door handles, elevator buttons, and payment terminals among so many others with your bare hands. Door handles are among the most germ-infested objects in houses, hospitals, factories, and elderly homes because large number of people uses them daily. Whereas there has been emphasis on using sanitizers and washing hands, individuals are still falling a victim of touching this high contact surfaces and therefore accidently touching their faces and putting them at risk of infection by corona virus. As Students of IEEE Kyambogo University Student Branch, we have come with idea of the Hands Free Opening Door System that can help you handle high-contact surfaces while minimizing exposure to germs and viruses. The Hands Free opening door system can be designed in various ways to suit the need of the community where installed. These include Foot operated door opened in which individual can close or open door using the foot Elbow operated door opening system , hook design system and so many other designs that can help to avoid touch the high contact surfaces with bare hands. We hope to install the different designs according to the need of the community. The Hands Free Opening Door System is not just limited to a pandemic situation, either. It can be kept for the years to come and used when an individual wants to avoid touching surfaces in grimy situations This assembly will allow you to open and close doors without using your hands at all. This will reduce your exposure to contamination by not having to touch the doorknob. Although designed specifically to help reduce the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19) but will also help prevent the spread of other infections found on toilet or other commonly used public doors. They can be installed internally or on external doors and supplied with a connection kit to suit doors of different thickness.

IEEE Tunisia Section

  • Teleworking Platform for Hospitals during Containment in Case of a COVID-19 Type Pandemic

The aim is to set up an intelligent teleworking platform for document management used in health establishments for direct application to the COVID19 pandemic. Through this project, it is possible to follow the suspect from the triage phase, group, organize and archive all documents and medical records, provide secure access to the various documents for all administrative and health professionals, help in decision making, minimize travel, reduce contamination, and have a dashboard of each COVID patient19. The telework platform is a solution that has an immediate technological impact to help all administrative actors, health professionals, and patients to overcome the difficulties of manual handling of documents caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Teleworking is strongly recommended to minimize the travel of actors during the containment period and reduce contamination in the case of this COVID-19 pandemic while maintaining links, document exchange, and decision making. With this TELE-COVID-COVID project, we will ensure teleworking in a hospital to minimize the travel of the different actors (administrative, health personnel, patients) and to reduce to the maximum the risk of contamination in case of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

IEEE Philadelphia Section 

  • Practical Community Safety and Outreach Initiative in Post COVID-19 Outbreak

The health safety in the community in villages in Rwanda is at risk, due to lack of enough practical knowledge and community-based solutions on fighting Covid-19 , this is leading to the fear of a potential outbreak as the country is reopening. So with the proposed project we will work on providing practical safety skills within the communities in vulnerable villages in the RUSIZI District, this will include printed materials , safety videos displayed at village gatherings and the outreach to public places in the village, such as markets, with community trained volunteers who will bring these lessons to the community, with the available community students high school graduate works we will be able to train up to 40 youths who will carry out the campaigns , share the resources, train good hygiene skills to villages in different sectors of the district , also the materials and content are available to the public from the MINISTRY OF HEALTH and RWANDA BIOMEDICAL CENTER, which will be working together through its community initiatives and IEEE Members will also work as leaders, mentors and facilitators to our other volunteers.

All funded projects can be found at https://hac.ieee.org/