326 Mohamad Adawe’s homemade respirator 

Date: May 2020
Designed by: Mohamed Adawe
Credit: euronews

At the age of just 21, Mogadishu-based mechanical engineer Mohamad Adawe invented a homemade respirator. Explaining the necessity of his innovation, Adawe told journalists that his home country, Somalia, does not have ‘economic might or a strong government […] To respond to this bad disease, I produced this device at a time when our people are suffering from a shortage of oxygen equipment.’Praising Adawe's invention, Dr. Hussein Abdi-Aziz Abdulkadir (the Director of the Somali Syrian Hospital in Mogadishu) told euro news that, 'In the past, you always had to use your hands to squeeze the airbag of the device, to clear the airway of the patient. But now Mohamed Adawe has automated the device to help patients clear their airway and help with breathing at a time when there is an urgent need for this.'