Student Design Awards winner: Incube
WINNER: Brief 8, Dignity in Displacement - How might we support displaced individuals to find hope, dignity and safety to rebuild their lives?
‘INCUBE’ is a low-cost incubator that can save the lives of new-borns in IDP camps helping them maintain an ideal body temperature. It’s flat-pack design runs without electricity and is made with local materials including cardboard and beeswax.
In North-East Nigeria the militant Islamist group Boko Haram has caused over 65,000 deaths (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2019) and has forced over two million people to leave their homes behind, with some currently residing in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. Sixty-two percent of new-born babies have hypothermia upon 24hrs of being born, (NCBI, 2010) with temperatures dropping as low as 12ºC at night, and medical services being unable to travel to the camps due to safety reasons; by the time help arrives it is usually too late. INCUBE is a flat-pack low-cost incubator that runs without electricity and is made with local materials including cardboard and beeswax, helping new-borns in camps to maintain an ideal body temperature long enough to save lives.
