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- Country of residence: Palestine
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A Palestinian Refugee with "Engineering Inventions" with a 48-Year Mark
Gaza/ Hoda Al-Dalo:
At the age of six, Amer would disassemble every toy he could get his hands on to understand how it worked, explore its parts and engines, and then reassemble it. He was aided by the tools his father had at his disposal. He developed a passion for engineering innovations, which he developed in recent years until he was able to create devices and register patents in his name.
Amer Ahmed Darwish, a young Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, was born in the Baddawi camp in 1988. His origins go back to the village of Nahf in the Acre district of occupied Palestine.
His mother died when he was an infant, so his grandmother took him in and raised him in her home. This was perhaps one of the main reasons for his intense love and attachment to his homeland, Palestine. The image of his grandmother crying every day out of longing for her homeland still haunts him, and her stories about Palestine remain a source of pride for him.
Before her death, his grandmother accompanied him on a visit to the occupied homeland in 1994. Darwish began his creative journey at a young age, going through several stages. He began making and modifying toys at the age of thirteen, when he created small boats from cork, mounted a battery-powered motor, and enjoyed watching them move in the water.
He added: "I used to convert the movement of my hand-held toys into electrical movement and control them using a wired remote control. Then I moved on to manufacturing simple devices. In my first experiment, I made a voltmeter using primitive tools. I was in the first year of high school.
It was a challenge for me, as I wanted to prove my worth in physics class after I told my teacher that I was capable of making a device that would perform the same function." Darwish loved science, exploration, and invention, but he disliked literary subjects and did not want to memorize them, which affected his level of achievement and prevented him from completing his studies in the scientific track, because the education system requires that a science student obtain a grade of 65% or higher.
He points out that he was forced to pursue a literary career and was unable to study engineering. Instead, he chose to study business administration at university. Despite earning a master's degree, he was unable to find a job because he was Palestinian. Instead, he worked in the freelance sector, where he gained significant experience.
Engineering innovations
Darwish continues: "After that, I bought a bulldozer specifically for work. One day, I was involved in a work accident that resulted in a broken hand, and I had to take a long recovery leave. During that time, he came up with the idea of using a wireless remote control to operate the bulldozer." If necessity is the mother of invention, Darwish's need for work drove him to harness his engineering passion for an invention that would enable any injured person to drive remotely using their smartphone. This was his first real invention, for which he received a patent, and was followed by other achievements. He called his device (48 BlueDrive), which is mounted on heavy machinery and uses Bluetooth technology as a means of communication between the device and the phone. It is equipped with a camera that provides a clear view of the work to be completed. Darwish points out that the device allows people with physical disabilities and the injured to work, and helps protect drivers from injuries and work-related accidents.
Fire extinguishing system
Darwish spoke about the second invention, "Pals FireFighter 48," a Palestinian firefighting and rescue system. It consists of a solar-powered firefighting robot, all of whose components can be controlled via smartphones. The system includes a traditional water hose, foam and powder cylinders, and other equipment, allowing users to choose the appropriate option for their use.
The robot can also perform first aid and rescue two injured adults at once from dangerous areas. He explains that the invention's secondary features include the ability to emit sounds and colored visual signals, automatically raise flags with instructions for those trapped, and the ability to attach itself to various surfaces for stability during difficult tasks such as pumping water at high pressure over long distances.
While the third invention (Corona Fighter 48) was in 2020, it is a small electronic device that attaches to smartphones, and provides a range of services to smartphone holders, including the sterilization function in an easy, highly efficient, and inexpensive manner, and it also provides a wireless charging service for smartphones as an attached power bank that accompanies smartphone holders during their daily activities. Darwish continued, "The impetus for inventing this device was the COVID-19 pandemic that spread through Lebanese camps amidst the reduction in UNRWA services provided to Palestinian refugees and the weakness of the health sector."
Alternative sterilization rooms
As for Darwish's latest invention (Full Body Sanitizer 48), he describes it as an alternative to traditional sterilization rooms, and he has waived his intellectual property rights in it for the benefit of poor countries deprived of vaccines. He explains that the device operates automatically when the user stands on its main platform, with the sprinkler column rotating around the user, dispersing the spray from all directions at the density and speed pre-specified by the user according to their needs. Darwish points out that his new device automatically detects a person's height and orders the sprinklers to operate based solely on that person's height, making the sterilization process as economical and hygienic as possible, in accordance with health organizations' recommendations to avoid exposure to excessive amounts of disinfectants. The device is rechargeable and can operate 24 hours a day in countries that still suffer from power rationing, such as Lebanon.
Obstacles
Darwish, the inventor, faces difficulties, including his inability to obtain visas to participate in conferences outside Lebanon due to the refugee passport he holds. His profession requires travel to secure the tools he uses for his inventions, which are unavailable in Lebanon.
He says, "I receive many invitations from engineers to attend international conferences, but the obstacle I face is obtaining a visa." Darwish's quiver is still brimming with ideas, as the unavailability of suitable parts for his inventions forces him to search for alternatives from used car parts and old machines, modifying and designing them to suit his innovations. He also points to his inability to protect his intellectual property, and thus his inability to capitalize on his ideas by turning them into commercial products.
He adds, "A Palestinian refugee is not entitled to an international patent that protects him from theft, because under international law he is a stateless person, in addition to the annual fees and taxes imposed on the patents he has obtained." "Our right of return as Palestinian refugees is non-negotiable. As refugees, we are certain that we will soon return to our homeland from which we were unjustly displaced. I have included the number 48 in all my engineering innovations to symbolize the certainty of our right to return. This number has been associated with a dark image in Palestinian memory, and I want to rebuild it and connect it to scientific achievements, hope, and optimism," Darwish concludes.
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