INSPER NEWS

The initiative has already distributed 1,400 units of personal protective equipment, adapted for better mobility

Insper and the Arq.Futuro platform are working together to donate face shields to communities in the indigenous territory of Xingu and socially vulnerable territories in the city of São Paulo. Upon Arq.Futuro’s donation of raw materials for visors and rubber bands, the Fab Lab and Tech Lab teams at Insper produced 1,400 face shields, 200 units of which we had already sent to the Indigenous Land Association of the Xingu (ATIX, for its acronym in Portuguese). Ianu Kayabi, president of the association, received the equipment. We sent another 100 units to the Institute for the Brazilian Indigenous Art (Instituto Xepi, in Portuguese). Mayawari Meinhako, president of the institute, received them.

Another 200 units are at the Xingu Project team’s disposal at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). It is responsible for organizing PPE’s entry into the indigenous territory to forward them according to priorities. We also created a 200-unit stock to meet new demands in the Upper Xingu region.

Tomas Alvim, Arq.Futuro’s co-founder and coordinator of Insper’s Arq.Futuro Cities Lab says he regularly works with Upper Xingu’s indigenous population and that, at the onset of the pandemic, several support initiatives were structured for the villages in the region. They were targeted at food security to avoid the need to travel to cities and, thus, reduce the risk of exposure to the new coronavirus.

“From the moment that infections became a reality in the region, we shifted our focus to also sending PPE to its villages, in partnership with UNIFESP’s Xingu Project. From a talk with Juliana Mitkiewicz, a professor at Insper, came the contact with Daniel Kras, Laboratory Manager at Insper’s Fab Lab, and the idea of making face shields for the indigenous population”, Tomas explains.

For him, this donation is essential because besides meeting the demand for protection of health professionals mobilized for the pandemic effort, it also prevents them from being infectious agents, given they have high exposure to the coronavirus. “Among these professionals, there is already a local indigenous team of nurses and nursing technicians who provide care for those contaminated and monitor their condition.”

The donations also extend to territories in the city of São Paulo. The partnership donated 500 face shields to the Downtown Homeless Movement (MSTC, for its acronym in Portuguese). They were received by Carmen Silva, the movement’s leader. Another 60 units were received by the Association of Housing Movements (UMM), by the hands of Evaniza Rodrigues, who is also a leader of the movement. We also delivered 150 units to the Educational and Sports Association of Jardim Colombo (UEEJC). They were received by Ester Carro, who leads the initiative. Those three movement leaders are professors at our Graduate Program in Social Urbanism and assistant professors at the Women and Territory hub of Insper’s Arq.Futuro Cities Lab.

Insper Face Shield  — Insper’s Face Shield project started in March and has so far produced 30,000 pieces of the so-called Tiara Inspira (Inspira tiara), which supports face shields for health professionals working in ICUs and operating rooms. The initiative counted on the donation of materials by Braskem. We make the project’s documentation available in open code so that other institutions can use the project and help more people.

The models sent to the Xingu communities are complete face shields adapted to the local reality. “When we questioned whether there would be opportunities for adjustments to serve the indigenous population better, we received feedback to adjust the size of the visors to achieve better mobility. Therefore, we designed a new visor model — we shortened and modified that part’s profile. Now, we have the Inspira Xingu version,” Daniel Kras explains.