Personal Info
- Country of residence: Palestine
Information
Amer Ahmed Darwish, a young man from the village of Nahaf in Akka district, occupied Palestine, was born as a refugee in Lebanon in 1988 in the Beddawi camp, in Tripoli (north), and he still resides there with his family.
Amer obtained a Master's degree in Business Administration, while pursuing his passion in various engineering innovations. In this regard, Amer completed three inventions in his engineering projects. The first project was "Blue drive 48", which drives heavy machinery via smartphones. The second project was a Palestinian fire and rescue system, which is a firefighting robot with an incubator house that operates using solar energy in addition to a crane rail, so that the robot can climb burning buildings and enter them to rescue those at risk inside. It was called “Pulse fire fighter 48.” As for the last project, “Corona fighter 48,” it works on sterilization through smart devices to combat Corona virus infection.
Regarding these inventions, Amer tells Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed: “The combination of management sciences, economics, and engineering innovations is beneficial in terms of the human ability to predict consumer needs, and from this standpoint I began to think about what people need in light of the spread of the Corona epidemic, and the first need was the sterilizer, and I was happy.” I am looking for how to solve the problem of providing it to people, and I had two motives for creating this device, one local and the other international.” He continues that the local motive is, “I see the people of the camps suffering from the spread of this epidemic, in light of the limited capacity of the health sector due to the decrease in UNRWA support, which has put great pressure on the medical teams. As for the global motive, it is the increase in infections with the virus daily.”
As for the device’s work, he says: “This device works as a sterilizer and freshener, as it turns the liquids in it into a spray. It can be used for asthma patients and others who use a nebulizer, as its tank can be filled with medical liquids and used when needed.” He continues: "It is a small electronic device that is added to smart phones. It performs two basic tasks. The first is the wireless charging process for these phones, and the second is the sterilization process. Thus, it is refilled with a relatively cheap sterilizing liquid and the appropriate amount is added to the device."
He adds: “I obtained a patent for the three devices that I invented from the Ministry of Economy and Trade in the Lebanese Republic, and they have been protected locally for twenty years, and must be followed up with an international patent in order to protect them commercially at the global level, but this transfer to the international scope has many difficulties, as I am a Palestinian refugee.” “I do not have a homeland, so I must appoint someone to act on my behalf, which means that I will not be able to register the inventions internationally in my name.”
Amer faces several difficulties in his work, including his inability to obtain visas to participate in conferences outside Lebanon, due to the passport he holds, which is a refugee passport, noting that his profession requires travel in order to obtain tools to use in his inventions, which are not available in Lebanon. He says: "I receive many invitations from engineers to attend international conferences to participate in, but the obstacle facing me is obtaining a visa." Amer adds: “I have received many requests to obtain the device, which I am seeking to turn into a product. These requests are from Lebanon and outside Lebanon, and from large institutions, but I need time to communicate with investors or specialists in the field of manufacturing. Everything is difficult in the camp, so I need an incubator.” The project's ownership is proven internationally and it helps in meeting with investors until it reaches the stage of a commercial product and meets requests.
As for the time the invention took, he says: “The work took about three continuous weeks, and that was during the quarantine period from August 21 until September 7, and most of the parts of the project were made by hand, while the basic parts were extracted from a medical pressure testing machine.” .
He was able to visit his town in Palestine once when he was a child in 1994, with permission and coordination with the Red Cross, as the elderly were allowed to visit their relatives in Palestine, after the Oslo Accords, so he went with his grandmother, and the visit lasted three months, and its features continued to live in his memory like a dream. He has the idea of returning to her again. His attachment to Palestine led him to link the number 48 with all his inventions. He comments on this: “This number is linked in the Palestinian subconscious to the Nakba (1948), but I am trying to instill some optimism in it by linking it to scientific achievements and the future interests of our country.”
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