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Humanitarian makers: 3D printing for disaster relief

FEATURE

Meet the network of change-makers tackling the world’s great humanitarian challenges together

HUMANITARIAN

MAKERS

H

umanitarian Makers is a network of

engineers, designers, and

humanitarians who believe in a

grassroots community approach to

providing effective disaster relief.

Their mission is to provide solutions to

pressing human needs by designing, testing, and

producing humanitarian-use hardware built on the

Right

3D printers aren’t

just for hackspaces,

they’re portable

manufacturing

devices

Credit

Field Ready

Cameron Norris

Cameron is a

technology and

communications

specialist, passionate

about the use of open-

source hardware for

social innovation

@cameronsnorris

principles of ‘locally manufacturable’ and ‘open

industrial design’. Field Ready, its founding member

and current ‘parent’ organisation, is furthering

humanitarian making in countries facing natural and

human-made disasters. They solve a range of

problems by making useful things locally. This

includes rescue equipment to free people trapped

beneath building rubble in Syria, as well as medical

supplies that will provide essential healthcare to

villagers following Nepal’s most recent earthquake

and flooding.

Conflict, earthquakes, and storms cause enormous

destruction and human suffering. Researchers at

Citadel Investment Group believe that access to

food, water, shelter, education, and basic health care

are among “humanity’s top ten problems over the

next 50 years”. According to Alessandra Cozzolino,

author of Humanitarian Logistics, the estimated cost

of aid logistics is $15 billion per year, representing

60–80% of the entire humanitarian aid budget.

After talking with a Field Ready founder, Eric

James, and reflecting on her experience in the

Kenyan healthcare sector, social entrepreneur

Naiomi Lundman set up Humanitarian Makers in

2015. Initially, it was a LinkedIn group to explore
      community interest in bringing together aid workers,
      makers, and logistics experts interested in
      crowdsourcing their expertise to support
      humanitarian-focused problem-solving in disaster
      and recovery settings.
      Since 2015, Humanitarian Makers has piloted
      several design challenges to explore the potential of
      leveraging the remote maker community for
      prototype testing, particularly within the general
      maker community that seeks to apply their talents
      towards social-good product developments.