Provoked by ‘boat migrants’ tragedy, young Syrian refugee invents smart life jacket

AMMAN — Nineteen-year-old Siba Obaid, a Syrian refugee living in Jordan, has developed a smart life jacket, which has been adopted by the Ibdaa Foundation.

Obaid said that her invention was triggered by the tragedy of her father and the hundreds of thousands of Syrian migrants on open seas while attempting to escape the scourge of war. “I was horrified to see these people dying with nobody around to help and rescue them.”

She then came up with the idea of the tracking life jacket which includes electric circles equipped with a water sensor and a GPS device. “Once the sensor is immersed in water, the GPS device sends signals of the person’s location coordinates.” 

Interviewed by The Jordan Times, Obaid said she had no tools but “knowledge and science”. 

“My idea was only ink on paper until I joined the Astrolabe Marathon.”

The young woman took part in Astrolabe Marathon, a scientific innovation marathon for the young people between the ages of 15 and 19, organised by the Ibdaa Foundation and funded by Al Hussein Fund for Excellence.

Obaid said that her project was among the 70 out of 200 ones accepted by the Ibdaa Foundation. “After the interviews, 50 were selected to join the training camp and I was one of them.”

During the training camp, participants received “scientific, technical, and vocational support. They were first taught the basics of scientific research, how to develop their ideas and how to build prototypes of their inventions. Each applicant was accompanied by an engineer providing help and support in the technical implementation”, Hamzah Khawaldah, project manager of the marathon told The Jordan Times.

Eventually, three projects were awarded, and 20 adopted, including the young Syrian refugee’s.

“At first, I was afraid that my joy for getting accepted would fade away because I can’t leave the camp on a daily basis. However, the foundation was really helpful in this regard,” she recalled.   

Khawaldah explained that they took “all the responsibility in facilitating Siba’s travels from the camp. We sent official letters asking the camp officials to allow her to join her peers”. 

“Siba is a creative young lady with a smart idea. Our main role now is to protect her idea, polish it, and then find an entity that can fund her project and turn it from a prototype into an actual product,” Maha Darwish, president of Ibdaa Foundation, stated.

Although the young inventor could not afford to enroll in a university after completing her Tawjihi exams, the Ibdaa Foundation decided to support her by paying 75 per cent of her university fees for the first semester, triggering the UNHCR’s higher education scholarship programme (best known as DAFI), to include her in their programme, covering 100 per cent of her tuition fees.

“We believe that creative minds like Siba deserve to be funded and supported. Her creativity and excellence need to be polished with quality higher education, which is why we gave her the fees for the first semester,” Darwish said.

Darwsih said that the incubation phase entails registering the projects with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply, and introducing young inventors to businessmen and investors who can finance these projects.

For Obaid, this achievement in spite of all the difficulties and challenges she faced is a powerful message to every individual. “Never bury your ideas with despair,” she said, recalling the famous saying that motivated her: “When there is a will, there is a way.”