Monster Arts Inc (APPZ)

[APR]

These drones will deliver blood and supplies across Rwanda


By Brooke Crothers | FoxNews.com

Published May 13, 2016


A California-based start-up is building drones to drop medical supplies in some of the most remote areas of Rwanda, putting the emerging technology where it can do some real good.

Here’s the challenge, according to Zipline International, a Silicon Valley robotics start-up that is developing and building the drones: somewhere in the neighborhood of two billion people lack adequate access to essential medical products because they live in inaccessible areas. As a result, almost 3 million children under age five die every year.

Enter Zipline. Initially, the company's drone service is slated to deliver blood to 21 transfusion clinics across the western half of Rwanda, one of the poorest nations in the world. Then it will expand service to the remainder of the country in early 2017, Justin Hamilton, a company spokesperson, said. This will make deliveries possible twice a day, a stark contrast to many remote centers across the world, where deliveries are often done just twice a year.