Protege BR

The problem that we are aiming to settle is the lack of reliable informations regarding the real needs of hospitals in crisis situations.

This project's goal is to build a digital platform that will compile information related to the decentralized production of resources for hospitals during pandemics and wars, connecting the necessary stakeholders to make donations of medical supplies viable: producers (makers / designers/ players from industry / universities), hospitals, material producers and possible local donors. 

The platform will collect demands from hospitals and connect them with local makers who can help, highlighting active initiatives and hospital protocols.

if it was scaled globally, beyond the platform, a learning document will be produced so we can share the learnings from this process with other movements helping policy makers and decision-makers to understand how to connect public, private agents, civil society and the citizen to work together in response to crisis. 

Taking COVID 19 as an exemple, current statistics indicate that 15-20% of those who get infected require hospitalization for respiratory failure for multiple weeks, and often need intense healthcare from medical professionals who are at severe risk treating these highly infectious patients. Hospitals and health workers warn that there are not enough supplies, like ventilators, respirators and PPE to meet demand.

At the moment, more than 40 groups in Brazil are producing faceshields (a facial protector) for health workers all over the country and those groups are facing a hard time to find out where the products are really needed. In other words, we connect hospitals to makers, civil society initiatives and citizens who want to donate.

The objective is to build a lexicon common to hospitals and active initiatives, which usually work in such different ways. The platform aims to give visibility to a worldwide problem and to pressure agents from industry and public authorities to act, while generating a feeling of solidarity with health professionals and calling on citizens for generous actions.

Protege BR is a platform that allows groups of makers, engineers and researchers to connect with the needs of vulnerable populations (health professionals from the base, citizens of more remote and poorer municipalities, where there is fragility in the health system).

Expects this to happen as a consequence of connections established by the platform (either from a group viewing available information, or through an active contact made by the project team itself). In this sense, it is worth mentioning that the platform is not just a website with available information, but has an active process of people connecting needs and
information.

The objectives that are expected to be achieved are:
 To increase in the number of health professionals protected with personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic;
 To establish connections between groups producing medical supplies in a
decentralized way (from universities and citizen initiatives focused on the public interest);
 To understand the main needs of black women and elderly people in Brazil in the context of the epidemic;

Administrative directors of hospitals (who receive/coordinate donations); general directors of hospitals (who understand the needs of the hospitals and can vocalize it, asking for help); groups/network of nurses (group composed of people in more vulnerable condition and responsible for the hospital service); groups/ network of public agents connected to healthcare system, innovation and also manufacturing fields; makers organized in groups fighting against pandemics, researchers/professors from universities connected to groups fighting against pandemics, citizens participating in community initiatives and professionals from manufacturing industry willing to help;

Our project is fully aligned with the objective of the challenge with regard toseeking for solutions that focus on preventative and mitigation measures that strengthen access to affordable primary healthcare systems, enhance disease surveillance systems, and improve healthcare supply chains our project.

We are looking for simple and low-cost solutions that are sorely needed and that can be applied locally in different parts of the world.

Our solution is unique because it solves a real supply chain problem in the healthy system - especially in developing countries - generates engagement in local communities and promotes the exchange of knowledge in real time between different levels of players during calamity situations.

The solution not only solves the local issue but has global ramifications: a small NGO in Malawi can have access to faceshield prototype studies carried out by a American university or a fablab based in the nicest neighborhood of Sao Paulo can supply a demand that a director of small hospital in the favelas is needing quickly and objectively.

Is like when you type "grocery stores near me" on Google, on our platform the user is able to vocalize their demand and see who is closest and can supply it.

Protege BR maps initiatives across the country and attributes them to Google Maps. The user can navigate between the states of Brazil or make filters for the equipment he needs as the image below.

Our platform uses a format that is already widespread globally. Navigation works just like Google Maps and, as the user approaches the initiatives of interest, the initiatives are shown exactly at their addresses, indicating what they produce, contact details and what they can offer to those interested.

Since we started in March 2020 due COVID 19 pandemic, we cannot 

7 full-time staff

5 contractors

Staff assigned to the project

Protege BR has strategic support from Google for the platform development.

Our platform has a direct and real impact on the daily lives of our users. Small PPE makers are able to locate the updated contact details of hospital and health institutions and consult the supplies stock that is missing for accurate performance on demand. In this way, a partnerships that breaks the traditional production chain is established and meets the demands of local communities quickly and effectively. Likewise, health institutions can locate local producers and request PPEs that can, in real-time, save lives.

At the same time, the platform offers open PPE projects developed by universities and specialized centers so that areas further away from large centers and, therefore, with poor access to quality information, can produce their own PPE safely and in accordance with the rules of Brazilian law.

Our team is made up of members with extensive experience in the maker sector and our institution is certified by NGO Source as a model institution in Brazil. With that, we spoke with several players in the national and international scene to establish the strategy of our project.

As certificated by NGO Source we dialogue with several international institutions. We have been supported by institutions like Google and the Ford Foundation for 4+ years and every year we present our projects worldwide to raise funds to finance our projects.

Our goal now is to expand the performance of our platform and optimize it so that it can be used in different scenarios. To that end, we are talking to some institutions across America aiming to receive donations and grants.

We also give lectures and workshops focused on the maker scene in Brazil and on diversity in technology - mainly for minority groups -.

This project is strategic and important because at the same time it reduces the damage caused by the pandemic in one of the countries most affected by Covid-19, it builds infrastructure to respond to future crises, placing important local agents in public construction (such as universities and social initiatives of public interest) as protagonists.

It also brings the possibility of discussing and pointing out ways in the production of manufactures that place social interests at the center of the processes, and not just the forms that large corporations have been practicing. It is about to use an humanitarian health crisis to pave the way for open protocols and other forms of agile and decentralized production to be part of the lexicon of industrial players and governments, understanding the needs of citizens as a priority that should guide the supply chain in some context of crisis.

And it also offers the possibility to gather insights on actions that can be taken to meet the urgent demands of vulnerable populations.

We aim to expand our work in Brazil and Latin America to gather the information needed to fight the pandemic.

Our platform is IT based and aims to simplify the exchange of information between large and small centers in Brazil. The idea is to bring to light local initiatives and ideas for national action.

Olabi is a Brazilian social organization with six years of activity. Its emergence is associated with the maker movement and several projects have been carried out throughout its history associated with decentralized production. Its network is made up of universities, research groups, companies, social organizations spread across the country (with strong international dialogue).

In addition to this layer of production, Olabi is recognized for its projects focused on diversity, working with vulnerable populations in the country, especially young people and black women. Its work is recognized for its agility, pioneering spirit and dialogue with emerging fields such as technology, creativity and the future of society. It is worth mentioning that Olabi is led by 2 women, 1 being black and that his team has a strong commitment to diversity (today 80% are women and 60% are black people).

The appearance of Olabi is associated with the global growth of decentralized manufacturing production global movements, which are having their biggest expression of its activity during this pandemic. Since its beginning, the organization added to this discussion the agenda of social inequality and diversity, placing the most vulnerable populations at the center of the process of redesigning production. Therefore, it is the organization capable of leading this discussion in the country.

Olabi's mission is to reduce social inequalities through the democratization of technology development, promoting values of openness, diversity and ethics among makers, researchers and policymakers. This award will support the organization to structure its operations to respond to new demands presented by the COVID-19 crisis. Olabi has stepped up to take an essential role during the COVID-19 crisis, and now it needsimmediate support to continue to react.