1:59

It's about innovative ideas

2:02

that are getting help to people who've been affected

2:04

by natural disasters and human

2:06

conflicts, with a hospital on

2:09

a train, a workshop on wheels

2:11

and a robot medic. Humanitarian

2:16

crises have all kinds of causes.

2:19

So that's everything from natural disasters

2:21

like floods and earthquakes to war

2:24

and conflicts. Now according to the

2:26

UN, they've impacted more than 2

2:29

billion people around the world in

2:31

the last 20 years. And

2:33

when a crisis occurs, it can be difficult

2:36

or even dangerous to get help to the affected

2:38

area quickly. And it's often

2:41

ordinary people who end up suffering.

2:44

But that's where our first solution

2:46

today comes in. It's a clever idea

2:48

that's providing emergency transport

2:50

and treatment to people right

2:53

in the middle of a conflict zone.

3:22

Years ago, Albina was training

3:25

medical students at a teaching hospital

3:27

in the Ukrainian city of Sumi. But

3:30

in February 2022, the

3:32

town came under attack from Russian forces.

3:35

Civilians started evacuating the area, but

3:38

Albina made the difficult decision to

3:40

stay on. You know, when

3:43

this emergency happens in your country,

3:45

you are supposed to adapt somehow.

3:48

And I was looking for new options,

3:51

how I can be useful here. learned

4:00

that they were facing a big issue.

4:02

They needed to evacuate large

4:04

numbers of patients from the east to

4:06

hospitals further away from the conflict

4:09

in the west. Distances

4:11

in Ukraine are quite long and those

4:14

distances can't be covered by

4:16

ambulances because in ambulance

4:19

we can transfer mainly

4:21

one patient with pre-medical

4:24

colleagues and it's

4:25

quite difficult to arrange.

4:28

They also didn't have enough ambulances

4:30

at the time. So the solution?

4:33

To take advantage of Ukraine's effective

4:35

rail network and create the country's

4:38

first

4:38

hospital train.

4:42

Engineers from Medsan-Som frontiers

4:44

or MSS and the Ukrainian railways

4:47

sat down and worked out how to turn eight

4:49

railway carriages

4:50

from the 1980s into

4:52

a long thin ambulance that included

4:54

an intensive care unit or ICU

4:57

and it was a real engineering

5:00

challenge. They had to

5:02

redesign everything from

5:04

attaching anchor points to the floor to

5:06

stop the beds and trolleys rolling around

5:09

to widening internal doors so that they had

5:11

more space to maneuver patients.

5:14

Also they knew they would need a lot of batteries

5:16

to power the medical equipment so

5:18

they dedicated one carriage to store a generator

5:21

and batteries. But then they realized

5:23

that the ICU which would use the most

5:25

energy would be on the other end of

5:27

the train. So the solution? To

5:30

run two kilometres of electric

5:32

cables along the walls to

5:34

power all the

5:35

carriages.

5:37

Despite the language barrier and interruptions

5:39

from air raid sirens, the train

5:41

was ready to go in just over three

5:44

weeks.

5:49

Albina has been working, eating

5:51

and sleeping on it ever since and has got

5:53

to know the train very

5:54

well. I

6:00

am standing in the South

6:02

car. Sometimes we travel

6:05

over 48 hours and

6:08

here is the place. Then

6:11

we have small kitchen here and

6:13

we can take something for food.

6:19

I am standing in ICU

6:21

car. We have 5 ICU

6:24

beds here and we are able

6:26

to treat the most severe patients in

6:28

this car. We

6:30

have monitors

6:32

which you can hear sounds

6:35

of. We have ventilators,

6:37

we have insulin pumps, we have some that

6:39

are mostly the patients like

6:42

alcohol pumps, machines, acid remains,

6:44

etc.

6:46

This heating saving train has been running

6:48

since March 2022 and it

6:51

does one trip a week to get injured

6:53

people medical help. Our

6:55

reporter Claire Bates has been finding out more about

6:57

Albina and her team. She joins

6:59

me now in studio to tell us more. As always

7:02

it's great to see you. Hi Myra. Claire,

7:04

this train is working to get injured people in

7:07

the east of Ukraine to safer hospitals

7:09

in the west part of the country. It sounds

7:12

amazing but I have to ask, how

7:14

safe is this for the people who are on the train?

7:18

It is the safest way to transport

7:20

civilians because although Russia

7:22

has attacked Ukraine's rail network, trains

7:25

are very difficult moving targets to hit.

7:28

The hospital train certainly hasn't been affected by

7:30

any bombing to date. How

7:32

many people work with Albina on the

7:34

train? There are 12 medical staff.

7:37

They are mostly Ukrainian with a few internationals.

7:40

They also have an electrician, a translator

7:42

and a project coordinator. I

7:45

should say they couldn't have done it without the support

7:47

of the Ukrainian Railways who have been sorting

7:49

out all the schedules and the Ukrainian

7:51

Health Authority who have been working out which

7:54

patients to move west and have made sure

7:56

that they spread the load between the receiving hospitals.

8:00

do have lots of support from different

8:02

places. But also, Claire, do they struggle

8:05

to treat these patients on the train because

8:07

they don't actually stop? They pick them up and

8:09

then they just keep moving? Well, Albina told

8:11

me that they got very skilled at doing their

8:13

jobs while being jolted around. I

8:15

didn't manage to speak to any patients directly,

8:18

but apparently they really appreciated being

8:21

allowed to bring family members and they

8:23

even changed the rules so they could bring their pets with

8:25

them as well. And I think just all the

8:27

efforts went into relocating them safely.

8:30

What about the rest of the team? I imagine

8:32

it can't be easy being able to

8:34

treat these people in the middle of a conflict. Yeah,

8:36

the team found it really difficult.

8:39

We had our own medical skills,

8:41

you know, but we didn't

8:44

have experience both work in

8:46

emergency context at all. And

8:49

a few times we had old

8:51

ladies with age of 90 something, 80

8:54

something. This

8:57

traumatic computation. And it's so

8:59

awful. The most difficult

9:02

was to adapt

9:04

for evacuation of kids. When

9:07

you see a child

9:09

of six years old with

9:12

two feet amputated because

9:14

of trauma, it's

9:15

super sad.

9:17

But Albina said the way they got through it was

9:19

relying on each other. And also they're

9:21

just really proud of the role that they've played as

9:23

Ukrainians. Yeah, they should be. Could

9:25

you give me an idea, Claire, of the kind

9:28

of impact they've had so far? Yeah,

9:30

so the last time I checked, they had completed 126 trips.

9:35

And during these, they transferred 3,500 patients across

9:38

the country. And that included nearly 300 intensive

9:41

care patients. That's really impressive.

9:44

And it's great to see people like Albina

9:47

taking charge and being part of

9:49

the solution. And that, Claire,

9:51

is something that she has in common with

9:54

our next solution seeker. That's

9:56

right. So I want to introduce you now

9:58

to an organisation. called Field

10:00

Ready, and they have quite a unique

10:02

approach to dealing with humanitarian disasters.

10:06

Here's co-founder Eric James.

10:08

I've been working in international

10:10

aid for several decades, and

10:13

there was just a continuing

10:16

frustration with the way that supply

10:19

chains in particular work.

10:21

I remember one particular instance in

10:24

South Sudan. I

10:27

was on a visit to a remote

10:30

sub-office, and then there was only a single

10:32

dirt road going in and out of town.

10:35

And I was impressed by the fact that

10:37

there was a whole group

10:39

of land rovers and that

10:42

kind of vehicle. When I was talking to

10:44

the logistician, however, he pointed

10:47

out that only one of them was working.

10:52

And the way that they got that one working

10:54

was that they cannibalized parts from all the other

10:56

vehicles.

11:03

Eric

11:03

saw items from cars to solar

11:05

panels shipped to places following a disaster,

11:08

but these quickly stopped working for the lack

11:10

of a simple part or the knowledge to repair

11:13

it. He wanted to do something different.

11:16

When there's a humanitarian crisis or

11:18

some disaster, we help rebuild

11:21

by using local manufacturing, by bringing

11:23

innovation to those places, and by

11:25

working with local partners.

11:28

So Claire, this is like a crack team

11:30

of engineers who can leap into action

11:32

at a moment's notice to solve

11:35

basically whatever problems need solving.

11:37

Yeah, so instead of waiting for parts to arrive,

11:39

they'll make things themselves or they'll

11:42

fix the things that are already broken. But

11:44

whatever they do, they follow the same principles.

11:47

So when they go into a country, they first see

11:49

what resources are already available on the

11:51

ground. So that could be raw materials

11:54

or local expertise. And they also

11:56

employ people locally to head the projects.

11:59

overwhelmingly our staff are local from

12:02

those areas. Some

12:04

of them are makers

12:07

or product engineers by training. They've

12:09

been called MacGyvers that people are familiar with

12:11

at old TV shows.

12:14

And for those who haven't seen it, MacGyver

12:17

was a show about a secret agent who used

12:19

science and a Swiss Army knife

12:20

to solve problems. They're

12:23

able to work through problems. It's

12:25

way more than just some duct tape, but you

12:27

can't bubble down with that for MacGyver

12:29

did. But it's about bringing

12:32

those sort of skills and

12:34

ways of thinking to make useful

12:37

things in difficult places.

12:39

One example is Field Ready's work on the Turkey-Syria

12:42

border. The team there has been working

12:44

with local hospitals to fix their broken equipment

12:47

using laser cutters, 3D printing and

12:49

metalwork. And a few years

12:52

ago, they came up with a unique life-saving

12:54

device for Syrians caught in missile

12:56

strikes.

12:58

Collapsed buildings require

13:01

special equipment to lift tons

13:03

of rubble. It's expensive and hard to get.

13:05

The solution was

13:08

a massive inflatable rubber bar made

13:11

from whatever they could find on the ground.

13:12

We experimented with old

13:14

tires and we realized that the shape of them didn't

13:17

quite work. And so those

13:18

kind of covers that you put over the back

13:21

of a truck or a lorry,

13:22

you get the really thick stuff and compressed air,

13:24

which is locally available.

13:26

And that

13:27

rescue equipment has been used in many

13:29

rescues to bring people out of

13:32

rubble, including the most recent earthquake.

13:34

So Eric has built a network of people

13:36

who can fix or make important things

13:39

that are needed during a crisis.

13:41

Yeah, and it really is all kinds of different

13:44

projects. Everyone I really like was

13:46

a clever way to get kids at an Iraqi

13:48

refugee camp to wash their hands more.

13:50

What we did was

13:52

we had children come up with

13:54

ideas for different toys, toys

13:56

that are small enough to go inside

13:59

of soap. And that way, each

14:01

time they wash their hands, they're that much

14:03

closer to actually getting a toy. And

14:06

what we found was that there was a fourfold

14:08

increase in hand washing, which is

14:10

very significant.

14:13

Oh, I can see my kids really getting

14:15

into something like this. Yeah. Though

14:17

I should say that big effect wasn't found in a follow-up

14:20

study. Okay. Now, where do they

14:22

get all the money to do this? They

14:24

get various grants from governments and

14:26

foundations. The soaps were done

14:28

with Save the Children. And USAID

14:31

has recently funded a makerspace initiative

14:33

in the South Pacific. Just to explain, a

14:35

makerspace is like a workshop with tools

14:38

and machines where people can experiment and

14:40

design useful things. And in this

14:42

case, the things that they're designing can help during

14:45

disasters. Yes, and this one is

14:47

being tested in Fiji. Now, the

14:49

country often experiences cyclones and

14:51

they cause widespread devastation.

14:54

And what's great about this makerspace is that it's mobile.

14:57

So it can all be packed up in a shiny

14:59

metal trailer and towed behind a car

15:01

to where it's needed. Well,

15:04

my name is Marisiana Tafinino and

15:06

I am a field engineer at FieldRD. Our

15:09

makerspace is a workshop

15:12

on wheels. We

15:14

might have caused a bit of traffic, then

15:16

it has. The FieldRD team

15:19

were visiting the Loto village where the

15:21

locals are mostly fishermen and farmers. They

15:23

quickly worked out what needed fixing and replacing.

15:26

Our worshippers include gartering

15:29

fixings. So we have a garter machine

15:31

in our mobile makerspace. In addition,

15:33

we're also fixing the tanks, leaking

15:35

tanks for head rainwater harvesting.

15:38

They use the rainwater for drinking.

15:41

So they boil the water from the tank and

15:43

they use that for their drinking. They also use it for

15:46

washing and cooking. And

15:49

one of our major focus for this week

15:51

is the building of a latrine shelter.

15:53

So the good thing about

15:56

our shelter design is that you can

15:58

pick it apart and then... move it

16:00

elsewhere once the PPE is full.

16:04

While they make most things on site, the field latrines

16:06

are manufactured by a local Fijian company

16:09

and then they take those with them. And

16:11

what stage is all of this at? They've

16:13

tested it on three villages so far and

16:16

they say it's performed exceptionally well

16:18

on the ground and it could be ready to go into

16:20

the field at a moment's notice.

16:25

You're listening to People Fixing the World from

16:27

the BBC World Service and today we're

16:29

finding out about innovative ideas trying

16:31

to help people who've been affected by natural

16:34

disasters or conflicts. We've

16:36

just heard solutions that were created in

16:38

response to a crisis but Claire,

16:40

this next idea wasn't developed

16:43

in a disaster region. However,

16:45

it's hoped that it could help in dangerous

16:47

or delicate situations that people

16:49

can't reach. Yeah, sometimes casualties

16:52

are in areas that are just too hazardous

16:54

for medics to go into. I

16:57

went to Sheffield in the north of England to meet

16:59

the team behind a new kind of

17:01

rescuer.

17:05

So I'm standing in a

17:08

laboratory and right

17:10

in front of me is a, I guess

17:12

I call it a miniature tank with two

17:14

robot arms. It's kind of

17:16

slowly creeping towards me. Now

17:19

I'm here with Sam Hyde who

17:21

works at the University of Sheffield. Can

17:23

you explain to me what on earth it is I'm

17:25

looking at here?

17:26

Yeah, so it's a robotic platform

17:28

that's to be sent into hazardous environments

17:31

to provide medical assistance to

17:33

casualties. That

17:36

robotic

17:36

platform is a big bit of machinery,

17:39

about two metres long and one and a half

17:41

metres wide, covered in white plastic.

17:44

It has two long arms that can be moved around

17:46

independently using two controllers

17:49

and it travels forwards and backwards on caterpillar

17:51

tracks.

17:53

So the off-road capabilities

17:55

allow it to travel through kind of

17:58

deep mud through over-road. rocky terrain

18:01

across harsh environments.

18:03

So if there had been some kind of disaster,

18:06

like a chemical leak or a bomb threat

18:09

for instance, this

18:11

robot could go in where a human couldn't go

18:13

in? Exactly. So the idea

18:15

is you send in a robot where it's unsafe

18:18

to send another human being.

18:19

I can see there's a camera

18:22

in a ball at the top. What's

18:24

that?

18:24

So the system has a number of

18:26

cameras on it. The top one

18:29

is a 360 camera. There's

18:31

also robotic cameras built into the

18:33

arms. It's able

18:35

to pick up and use an auto injector

18:38

to provide medical assistance of painkillers

18:41

or drugs. It can pick up and use

18:44

a thermometer, so it's able to pick that

18:46

up, press the buttons and read out the display. We've

18:49

got a custom remote sensor that allows

18:51

you to probe the abdomen. And

18:53

then finally we've got a blood pressure cuff.

18:57

Claire, I have to start by asking, does this

18:59

robot have a name? Yeah it does.

19:02

It's a bit disappointing to be honest. It's called MEDITEL

19:04

and that stands for Medical Telepresence.

19:07

Okay. So anyway, you're

19:09

telling me that this robot can be driven

19:11

up to someone in need and

19:13

relay information back about how they're doing

19:16

and then be used to treat the person and all

19:18

of this remotely. That's really mind blowing.

19:21

I mean, how does it even get the blood

19:23

pressure cuff on the patient in the

19:25

first place? Well, I should say first, I

19:27

was looking at a prototype, so at one point

19:30

this happened.

19:32

I think it crashed.

19:36

Oh no, it crashed. Yeah, but after it

19:38

was rebooted, the team did get the cuff

19:40

on to the mannequin lying on the floor. But

19:43

sadly it didn't make much sound. So

19:45

to explain how it worked, imagine your

19:47

arms are the two robot arms for a moment. Now

19:50

the left one selects the tool while the right

19:52

one holds up the patient's arm and then they

19:54

work together to thread the pressure cuff

19:57

on. And here, how far away

19:59

can someone get? be and still control it.

20:01

When I was there the remote controller was only

20:04

about three meters away but Sam

20:06

said it could work up to a distance of three

20:08

kilometres as long as there were no buildings

20:11

in its path and I must say it wasn't

20:13

that difficult to get to grips with it. I

20:15

take it you had a go? Yeah I

20:17

yes I did. A lovely engineer

20:19

called Badler helped me out. First

20:22

he showed me two hand controllers that operated

20:24

the robotic arms. I then popped on

20:27

the VR headset and the screen relayed

20:29

a picture from the 360 camera which

20:31

was on board. I could see a mannequin

20:33

in front of me from the point of view of the

20:35

robot and I had to decide what

20:38

to do next.

20:40

So I'm quite keen actually to have

20:42

a go at doing an injection. There

20:45

we go so the arm is now coming down

20:48

and picking up in front of me the

20:51

injector and now I

20:53

presume this last quite sensitive bit

20:56

will be something that I take over and do

20:57

myself. Yes so you

20:59

can take control of the joysticks

21:01

in front of you. So I can go literally

21:04

downwards. I think I need to

21:06

have it tilted more

21:07

that way. If you keep pressing the button and

21:09

then if you tilt it this way.

21:11

Yeah here we go here we go this feels a bit

21:13

better. Yeah I think I

21:15

did it. I did it I gave the person an injection.

21:18

Wow okay and what's astonishing

21:20

about this is that I've just basically

21:23

told a robot how to give an injection

21:25

and it's done it in a completely separate location

21:28

to me.

21:32

Well well done Claire. Thanks very

21:34

much. Did it feel difficult? Yeah

21:37

well I must admit what you didn't hear was

21:39

the 10 minutes it took me to get to grips with the

21:41

controls. I kind of float and

21:43

move in all directions but I was

21:46

getting the hang of it at the end. Also

21:48

how is this robot powered? Yeah it uses

21:50

batteries and they make up nearly

21:52

half of the 450 kilogram

21:55

weight and I was told with those

21:57

it can operate for up to eight hours. clearly

22:00

limitations here plus of course it

22:02

did break down. Yeah I mean we must remember

22:05

though that it's a prototype so they

22:07

got just over half a million dollars in government

22:09

funding to make it and that meant they

22:12

used quite a few off-the-shelf parts.

22:14

So another issue is those parts aren't

22:17

waterproof. Oh okay so this wouldn't

22:19

work when it's raining or in

22:21

a place that's flooded. Yeah exactly but

22:24

it's still a pretty big achievement considering

22:26

their budget and the time frame of just nine

22:28

months and Sam thinks it's one-of-a-kind.

22:32

The idea is that the entire system

22:35

is the unique part the fact that it can

22:38

do ruggedized off-road movements

22:41

it has that

22:42

bi-manual dexterous intervention. We've

22:45

got a number of different sensors and systems

22:47

integrated in there has the capability

22:50

of using standard handheld tools.

22:53

These are all features that are probably

22:55

replicated across different systems but

22:58

don't necessarily exist in one single package.

23:01

They're hoping to get extra funding to develop

23:03

it further. I do think they need a better name

23:05

though. I do as well something like Doc

23:08

Botsky or I've been bandied

23:10

to bot I guess.

23:11

But Claire this is not the only

23:13

rule but in town is it? No

23:15

it's not so I looked around to see what was being developed

23:18

and at John Hopkins University in the US

23:21

they recently demonstrated how they could use

23:24

spots. That's a four-legged

23:26

robot dog from Boston Dynamics

23:28

to assist an army medic. So

23:30

this robot dog was carrying and fetching

23:33

and checking on casualties is kind of amazing.

23:36

There's also another one called Taurus

23:38

that was developed by a company called SRI

23:41

International and like the meditail

23:43

it's equipped with cameras and two robotic

23:45

arms that can be used to manipulate various

23:48

tools. However the video I

23:50

saw shows it being driven with a remote

23:52

control linked to the robot via a

23:54

long wire. Wow well I'm

23:56

sure we'll be looking at robots a bit

23:59

more in the program. But for today,

24:01

that's all we have time for and thank

24:03

you Claire for what we've heard. Thanks Myra. That

24:09

brings us to the end of this week's programme.

24:12

But go ahead and send me an email with any

24:14

thoughts you have about what you've heard today.

24:18

Just send the email to peoplefixingtheworld

24:21

at bbc.co.uk. And

24:23

of course join me again next week for more innovative

24:26

ideas trying to change our world.

24:29

Until then, thanks for listening.

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The Colorado River provides drinking

25:42

water for nearly 40 million people

25:45

across the wall. But with the

25:47

ongoing mega drought, we're using

25:49

more water than the river has to give.

25:52

And private investors have discovered a financial

25:55

windfall

25:55

buying water rights.

25:59

survive investigates who is cashing

26:02

in on the climate crisis and what it

26:04

means for the rest of us. Listen

26:07

to How We Survive wherever you get

26:09

your podcasts.