And we don't mean the sheets of metal which made up the vehicles. Created by Design That Matters, a nonprofit organization which creates new products for social enterprises in developing countries, the baby incubator uses former car parts to work.
For instance, the creators of the incubators used the vehicles' dashboard fans for the incubator's circulation, the signal lights and door chimes for alarms, headlight assemblies for heat and the battery for energy.
The idea behind the project was very simple. Intended for remote, rural areas, the incubator had to be both easy to use and easy to fix. Since, almost as an unwritten rule, small trucks, cars, and motorcycles are always present in even the most remote areas, using their parts to build an incubator seemed logical.
Design That Matters plans to take things even further and profit from the widespread car parts suppliers and car mechanics. The retailers can be used to supply spare parts for the incubators (and, for that matter, other medical equipment which can be built using car parts), while car mechanics can be trained to become medical technicians.
According to existing data, over four million infants in the developing world die within a month of birth. Half of them would be saved if given a warm and clean environment.
“I don’t know where you get a replacement incubator filter in a remote Nepalese village,” Timothy Prestero, one of the designers of the incubator explained the reasons behind the project for The New York Times. “But you likely can find someone there who can replace a car’s air filter. That’s where this idea really has virtue.”
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