Doha
A fire-resistant suit developed by students of Al Resala Independent Secondary School for Girls was launched during the recent Civil Defence Exhibition & Conference in Doha.
The suit was created by the students in collaboration with Echo Qatar, Injaz Qatar and the General Directorate of Civil Defence within the framework of strengthening and raising awareness among school students.
The project is titled ‘Save Your Self’.
The team was headed by project director Tasneem Ahmed, who worked in co-operation with Taif Jamal and Dana al-Nuaimi under the auspices and support of Al Resala Independent Secondary School for Girls.
The project was supervised by Lamia Aqil, teacher of business administration, at the school.
Ahmed said the idea behind the project emerged after they were assigned by the school to establish a small company that would create a new item that had not been produced yet. Research revealed that there was an urgent need for fire-resistant suits to protect personnel during risky situations and eviction.
Jawahir al-Shaabi, a student, designed the suit and submitted a proposal for its manufacture at Echo Qatar. The company responded to the proposal and sent the design to a manufacturing plant in Germany. It also connected the manufacturers with the school students.
The product was built and submitted to the Civil Defence, which, in turn, approved the implementation of the idea. The school recently won an award for the project at the Mubadara Annual Young Entrepreneurs Competition hosted by Injaz Qatar.
The students look forward to accomplishing more projects in the future to help save lives and maintain high levels of security during evacuation.
Aspiring to further develop the product, Jamal said the experiment with the support of Injaz Qatar provided the encouragement to explore further and opened new doors for creativity in the future.
Aqil stressed that the project has drawn admiration from several quarters, including the public and the supporting entities, as the product will help protect individuals. She also felt that that the project has provided an impetus for students to become entrepreneurs of the future, besides strengthening teamwork and teaching them how to face challenges and difficulties.