Two New Products by USADF/IPRT TRAINEES from the Polytechnic Workshop

The Institute for Practical Research and Training (IPRT) is pleased to announce two new major products by its technical skills trainees in collaboration withAbaarso Tech University (ATU).

The first product, a device that turns plastic waste into useable asphalt-like material, has been designed and fabricated at our new ATU-Polytechnic workshop. The asphalt like substance is now being used to repair roads in Hargeisa. We are very pleased to have received a contract from a community-funded project, which helps construct and repair roads around the city of Hargeisa. We are now seeking funds to scale up the device to produce large quantities of plastic waste “asphalt” for road building.

“This project significantly reduces the amount of plastic that enters our environment causing ecological blight and hazard and also provides a critical needed road repair for our communities.” Says electrician Rashid Ali, Director of the ATU-Polytechnic Institute. “We can scale it up immediately and start employing many young people for a very useful public service”.

The second product, an all wood maternity-ward delivery bed, was produced by our carpentry trainees with the help of a visiting carpenter from Ireland. Midwives in our local hospitals were faced with the challenge of repairing imported delivery beds, which have parts not easily obtained locally. In response to this acute problem, a mid-wife working in one of the local hospitals designed a locally-appropriate bed and our trainees were able to produce two of these beds so far. Both beds were delivered to the Edna Adan Maternity Hospital (left panel). Our goalis to provide similar beds to other maternity hospitals and maternal and other mother and child health centers and to produce other types of hospital ward beds and furniture.