Pacific Humanitarian Makerspace begins production of locally-made disaster resilience and accessibility items

Above: Ashlyn of the Frank Hilton Special school tries a straw holder designed by Field Ready local engineers. Photo credit: Field Ready.

Disaster READY: Worldwide a significant proportion of humanitarian assistance funds can be spent on logistics - moving items from where they were made to where they are needed. In times of disaster, supply bottlenecks occur at ports and airports, which in turn delays critical aid. In the Pacific islands this is especially acute given the vast distances, limited transport infrastructure and small, decentralised populations.

With the support of Disaster READY in 2019, Field Ready opened the Pacific region’s first humanitarian ‘makerspace’ in Suva. The makerspace is designed to promote the localisation of production of humanitarian supplies and increase the local skills. The space is equipped with cutting edge digital tools such as 3D printers and laser cutters as well as conventional workshop tools to support the work of humanitarian partners in the region. As a result of the makerspace, Field Ready has facilitated the production of locally-made humanitarian supplies.

Field Ready first collaborated with local manufacturers on items that needed to be made in large numbers for humanitarian supply. Working closely with Habitat for Humanity Fiji, UNICEF, Fijian Ministry of Health, and the Rotomould Fiji company they were able to design an emergency latrine that is durable, lightweight, easily transportable and affordable. These latrines were designed in response to the shortage of appropriate toilet solutions identified after cyclone Winston in 2016 that left 26,000 households without sanitation facilities. The Fiji Ministry of Health agreed to deploy the first 50 of the emergency latrines to vulnerable communities; toilets would also be available for purchase by low-income families. Due to the successful development of the toilets in the initial months, more are expected to be produced across other countries in the region. 

Above: Fijian Field Engineer Karthyani Nambiar setting up the laser cutter to cut stencils for signs for evacuation centres. Image: Field Ready

Along with the toilets, Field Ready engineers also produced a shelter, a foot-operated water tap, assistive railings, ramps, and designed and produced 3D printed spare parts for disability assistive devices for crutches and wheelchairs. By fabricating low-volume customised items directly in the makerspace, items that were previously unusable because of a lack of spare parts or were unaffordable to repair have now made mobility easier for vulnerable individuals in the region.

The Field Ready designs in Suva are locally made with locally available materials, helping to make them affordable before they undergo rigorous safety assessments. Once an item is ‘field ready’ a manufacturing guide is produced to help train local people wherever possible so they can produce the solutions themselves. At the end of 2019, three Fijian graduate engineers had completed a six month full-time technical internship with Field Ready senior engineers in manufacturing techniques and were subssequently employed as field engineers.

Field Ready aims to have the Pacific Humanitarian Makerspace be a facility that can benefit the people of Fiji and throughout the Pacific islands, by providing aid in ways that are cheaper, better, and faster than traditional aid.