The team members helping to build the ventilators are: Somaya Faruqi, captain of team, Dyana Wahbzadeh, Folernace Poya, Ellaham Mansori and Nahid Rahimi. Upon their return home, the girls were not only hailed as heroes, but inspiration for Afghan women aspiring for higher education. In Afghanistan, about 40 per cent of women are literate.
Team Working on Prototype
In 2017, the national team made international headlines when their US visas were rejected. The teams' plight received international attention, and led to US President Donald Trump intervening on their behalf. The Afghan Girls Robotics Team returned from that competition with a silver medal for “courageous achievement” won by their ball-sorting robot. The competition was designed to distinguish between contaminated and clean water.
The all-female robotics team, aptly named the Afghan Dreamers, has long been more accomplished than average teenagers, thereby emerging as exemplary models not only for Afghan women but also for women across the globe.
Participants are selected for the Dreamers based on their entrance exam for the 9th and 10th grades, and the very best of them then get to join the national team – the Afghan Girls Robotics Team – for international competitions. There are about 50 participants in the Dreamers that stay in the program for about two years.
Tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob founded the trail-blazing program in the Afghani city of Herat, selecting young girls from high schools across the country, usually aged 14 or 15, for the program. "The only thing that we all want to do is help our people and our community. We will do anything to help them," she told The National. "I work with the girls, but mostly to co-ordinate. They are the real heroes."