- Jane Chen, the co-founder of Embrace Global, wants to send 3,000 incubators to
Ukraine . - Women in Ukraine are giving birth in bomb shelters as the war with Russia rages on.
As Ukrainian women give birth in bomb shelters while the war with Russia rages on, one non-profit leader wants to send thousands of low-cost incubator to babies in need.
Jane Chen, a Stanford graduate, is the co-founder of Embrace Global, a non-profit that designs, makes, and distributes low-cost incubators to impoverished and war-torn areas.
Incubators, the box-like machines found in a hospital's newborn intensive care unit, provide consistent temperature, oxygen level, and other environmental factors babies need. Incubators are vital to keep premature babies safe while they continue to develop their vital organs, per Healthline.
Incubators, while life saving, are expensive: a traditional machine used in US hospitals costs about $20,000, according to Chen.
Chen and Embrace Global found a way to provide constant heat to the baby by using a wax-like substance that, when melted, maintains a temperature of 98 degrees for up to eight hours.
The product works well in war-zones because it does not require stable electricity, is light-weight and portable, can be reused, and only costs a couple hundred dollars to make.
"We thought back to high school physics that when a material changes phases from a solid to a liquid or liquid to a solid, it does so at one constant temperature, giving off latent heat as it changes phases," Chen told Insider.
Low-cost incubators may help alleviate Ukraine's humanitarian crisis
After bringing her product to villages in Nepal and India, Chen launched a GoFundMe on April 9 to send 3,o00 low-cost incubators to aid Ukraine. The team is hoping to to raise $600,000, which would cover the cost of purchasing supplies and making the new incubators. She has already shipped 200 incubators to UNICEF.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukraine in February, leading to global outrage and sanctions on the country.
More than 2,o00 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since the Russian invasion, the United Nations reported on Tuesday. Morgues can't keep up with the number of casualties since the start of the war, one coroner said, resulting in bodies piling up in refrigerated trucks.
The war has been particularly disastrous for women, families, and children. Reports from towns liberated by Ukrainian forces allege Russian forces raping civilian women. Women are giving birth to babies in bomb shelters and hospital basements.
Chen said the incubators typically cost $300 to $400 to produce, but inflation and supply chain disruptions have driven the price up. She said donating to the GoFundMe would help save the lives of Ukrainian babies displaced by an unprovoked war.
"You think about all of these babies that are being born into a war setting, and often babies that are born prematurely suffer from complications for the rest of their life," Chen said. "And so we want to be able to provide that love and care on the first day of a child's life."