Eighth grade students from Warroad, MN learned that women in many parts of the world spend hours each day collecting water. When they realized how hard, dangerous and painful it can be to carry a 40lb jerry can full of water, they and set out to change that! These ambitious students creatively designed a water backpack/harness to make it much easier to carry these water cans.

Their design was so impressive that they were encouraged to enter a science competition sponsored by LEGO, which they won. The Warbotics team continued to win at the district and state level and were invited to the World Championships in Detroit, Michigan where they were able to demonstrate their innovative harness to thousands of people.

While the Warbotics team was at Worlds, the WEEMA team was distributing the harness prototype to women in Ethiopia. The feedback from the community was incredibly positive. The community said that these harnesses will make a big impact on women and girls who struggle to carry the heavy load. They asked for more harnesses to be produced and distributed as soon as possible.

The WEEMA team is currently searching for partners to mass produced these backpacks and meet the expressed need from our Ethiopian team. If anyone has connections that may help make this a reality please send to WEEMA (liz@weema.org)!

Watch the video below to see these harnesses in action!