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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 several partners including the Refugee Openware and May Day Rescue, Field Ready will be operating an innovation lab in Istanbul. This lab is specifically designed to identify challenges faced by relief teams inside Syria and to produce hardware solutions that can make a meaningful difference to their efforts. This includes unique lifting tools (to rescue people from collapsed structures damaged in the intense fighting that is ongoing), firefighting equipment, training aids and other items that will be made with various manufacturing equipment.
This project will provide a means to reach populations that are truly in need. To provide some measure of sustainability, it will include passing on skills to locals and prepare for a time when basic life-saving is no longer needed.