Over 136 million people need humanitarian assistance today. For this population, and indeed in developing countries generally, poor water and sanitation is a major cause of illness and death. Each family requires a means of handling clean water. The proven safe storage solution is the ‘Oxfam bucket’ – the standard aid bucket. Its design features protect against bacterial growth. A standard aid bucket (an open design) costs between $6-10. Transportation costs can be many times

2017 has been a great year for Field Ready and we have high expectations for 2018. Below are some of our highlights from the past year. We appreciate your continued interest and support, we couldn't do this without our great partners, supporters and donors. 2017 Field Ready Accomplishments: Our programs helped thousands of people through such initiatives as designing and manufacturing medical, water and sanitation, search and rescue and other useful items for humanitarian nee

Field Ready was recently on an assessment in the Pacific Region. We are going to be highlighting the countries we visited on the assessment for the Australian Humanitarian Partnership. The objective of the assessment was to better understand how we may respond to disasters in the region and build capacity and resilience against disasters. Fiji was the first country visited where we met with potential partners such as Habitat for Humanity. In the aftermath of Cyclone Winston i

This week, USAID and a range of partners held the Global Innovation Week in Washington, D.C. Field Ready was invited to present in the "innovation marketplace." Our Executive Director, Dr. Eric James, also give a presentation about our work highlighting the breadth and depth of our impact. The purpose of the event was described this way: "explore how the best ideas, innovations, and technologies are changing the way the U.S. Government, business and philanthropy work together

An essential set of goals for any innovative endeavor is ‘cheaper, faster, better.’ But how these goals can be measured and evaluated is a common question. To start, ‘cheaper’ is measurable because it is possible to compare at local and international markets. ‘Faster’ is also measurable; we find out how long it would take to order items by traditional means. ‘Better,’ however, is subjective and might not always be possible or practical to measure. How do we know when somethin

Field Ready has worked in Nepal with Trishuli District Hospital to fix and maintain vital medical equipment using 3D printed parts. The hospital was badly affected by the earthquake, and with many of its buildings destroyed, it has been running services from tents. Harsh conditions and lack of technical staff mean that medical equipment often breaks down. There are particular challenges around mending damaged equipment; much of the equipment is donated by aid agencies and im

Field Ready has demonstrated its approach to transforming humanitarian logistics in a variety of countries and contexts. Yet the reality of rapid onset disasters remains ever present and this requires an ability to “surge” staff and resources with little warning. To this end, Field Ready has created an emergency response capacity through its Rapid Emergency Deployment (RED) team. When there is a large-scale disaster and a need for the approach developed by Field Ready, our RE

What is it like to design a 3D printed part? We would like to share with you a recent example of the of the journey we take when designing even simple parts – in this case a set of plastic tweezers. To give some context, sets of plastic tweezers are a common item in health kits around the world and are particularly useful in primary health care (the kind of care that most people need, most of the time). They are used by staff for foreign object removal and to handle sterilise

Catastrophe can happen in the middle of the night…when tens of thousands of people need help, urgently. The earth shakes and people are left homeless. Or fighting erupts and people are forcibly displaced, running for their lives with only the clothes on their backs. Sadly, this is not the scenario of bad movies, but an all too common reality. Think Syria, Sudan and Somalia, but the possibility doesn’t end there. People need more than food and water under such circumstances; t

The Syrian civil war is now in its fifth year. There are nearly 14 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria with at least 6.5 million internally displaced people and 4.4 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. As many as 400,000 people have been killed. It is without a doubt the humanitarian catastrophe of our time. Field Ready must do something to aid the suffering. With a grant from the NextFab, through the FabFoundation, and working with severa

THEME 1 - HEALTH Healthcare close to the point of need is essential, and consequently many health posts and hospitals in Nepal operate in remote and challenging conditions. This is especially true in the aftermath of the earthquake, after which many health facilities found themselves operating out of tents. Health facilities rely on a wide range of specialist equipment in order to provide their services, and often the more complex the equipment, the more likely a component wi