EnAccess is supporting Open Source Oxygen Concentrators for Low Resource Settings during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Like most other organizations, our plans for the first quarter of 2020 have been slightly derailed. We started the year in great spirits and delved into searching for a new team member of our organization — we were committed to finding a senior-level colleague with leadership experience, and someone that would actively disseminate our open source work to companies who need it most. Enter Joel Chaney, our new Innovation Program Manager, who started earlier this April.

So let me mention how truly odd it is to hire someone for a position like this without any sort of face-to-face meeting before, during, or after the interview process. After several weeks of working together, we have no idea how tall he is, but we have all virtually met each others’ kids as they helpfully provide input during our video calls. Joel and Fabio (EnAccess Co-Founder) were planning to meet in the Netherlands, to talk to some potential funders and brainstorm how EnAccess could do more for open source innovation. Instead travel plans were postponed, and while big-picture topics are still discussed we quite quickly re-directed all our effort to one new question: what are we going to do, what can we do, what should we do to help the COVID-19 Pandemic once it reaches the un-electrified parts of the world? We’re not the sort of foundation that can (or should) provide no-interest business loans to help mini-grid companies stay afloat, nor can we provide funding in the millions of dollars for solar-powered hospitals and equipment. Luckily many other foundations, NGOs, and grant-makers have already stepped up to the plate in that regard and GOGLA has them listed here (and thank you to GOGLA for how quickly you moved to give the off-grid solar energy industry a place to virtually gather!).

However, there is something EnAccess is excellent at and something we can do right now. We are experienced innovators that understand the context of working in low resource settings, and we have the ability to quickly distribute small amounts of cash. After brainstorming and researching, we concluded our funding would be most useful in the design and manufacturing of open source Oxygen Concentrators for underserved communities (in the western world, the availability of oxygen is assumed, but in off-grid communities, this is not always the case). We want to help quickly get to a working design that can be locally built, repaired and used in settings where access to energy is an issue. We will support both complete design efforts, but also specific parts that will help with a complete O2 concentrator design — e.g. O2 flow meters, etc. Our application form is quick to fill out, we can review as soon as they come in and give an answer within 5 days.

If the COVID-19 pandemic spreads rapidly in Africa, the health systems are going to be under considerable strain with limited capacity and unable to cope; oxygen supplies will be very stretched. The ability to treat patients will depend on the availability of electricity, oxygen and ventilators. Oxygen Concentrators are normally electrically power devices that produce oxygen by the absorption of nitrogen from a flow of air. They can produce oxygen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — if they have sufficient power, which is a challenge for many low resource clinics in the developing world. Many rural hospitals have intermittent and poor quality power, as well as a lack of supply chains for replacement parts and an absence of trained maintenance personnel. We want to change this, so we will do what we do best: mobilize and organize the open source, energy access, engineering, and manufacturing communities in Africa, Europe the Americas and around the world to help. And we’ll keep it completely transparent and efficient.

So what should you do now? Share this post with anyone and everyone that you think can get involved. We are ready to go.

This story was originally posted in April 2020. To follow more about this project, please visit https://www.resilientoxygen.org/.