Nod Makerspace, a creative ecosystem and space for makers and co-working, launches the first online platform– Make for Romania (www.make4.ro) – that connects people and companies with creative ideas, knowledge and infrastructure with the aim of developing projects and products to help those that are most exposed to the new coronavirus. At the same time, make4.ro is a way to help digitalize the small producers’ community and to give them access to resources that will assist them in better fairing through the actual crisis.
Make for Romania aims to connect people and companies with either innovating ideas, knowledge or resources to assist in creating any type of product or service that can help first line responders, all throughout the country.
“We bring together makers – people who create, from the idea stage to the finished product, workshops, factories, producers, distributors and encourage their collaboration in such a way that each idea might be supported all throughout its lifecycle. Our first objective is to help hospitals and medical personnel in their fight against COVID-19”, commented Florin Cobuz, founder of Make for Romania.
The platform assists all those working in production related environments to come together and find ways to learn and adapt to the new needs and challenges of the current market, economic and social contexts as well as reinvent themselves in order to ensure survival for medium to long terms.
“Through learning and having access to correct information, we can become makers that actively help the community – especially now, when help is in such high demand. Our project has both educational and social impact objectives and it promotes hands-on learning. This learning component will be assisted by online courses, workshops and lectures aimed at professional requalification towards Production and Crafts”, as explained by Florin Cobuz.
Make4.ro is building the first validated database containing all workshops and entrepreneurs that activate in Production and Crafts industry in Romania at either a small or medium scale. It aims to facilitate the interaction between Makers’ communities all throughout the country through an intuitive platform that will also become an essential production tool for a wide variety of projects of varying degrees of complexity. Anyone wanting to create a new product, develop a new project or support a social cause will be instantly connected to the national community of Makers.
In the cases where financial or human resources are not available to those initiating the project, the platform also connects with partners, sponsors and investors that can assist in these areas.
A pilot-project already developed successfully by the founders of Make4.ro is Viziere.ro – a visor for medical personnel that can be quickly produced from readily available materials, that are easy to procure, PET-G. In less than 30 days, 165.075 visors have been produced in 23 regional centres and an international centre in the Republic of Moldova, with the help of 2.141 volunteers. The visors have been donated to 1.100 medical practitioners throughout the country and for their production over 150 organisations and hundreds of people have sponsored this project with donations in cash, materials, production capacity and transport. So far viziere.ro has received 7.000 requests for over 500.000 visors.
Make for Romania strategic partners are: Nod makerspace, Code for Romania, Babele, MSL Group The Practice, Stiloul Creativ, JuneCom, Romanian Design Week, The Institute, Mater, Fonduri-Structurale.ro and Monica Jitariuc as the brand ambassador.
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