The beautiful story of the day: a teenager invented a waterproof sleeping bag for the homeless
IRELAND – A 15-year-old from Limerick, Ireland, invented a lightweight, waterproof sleeping bag with reflective tape for the homeless. Presented at a show dedicated young scientists in 2015, the project was developed and is now present in the streets of Dublin.
The idea came to him when she was a fundraiser for a homeless shelter. Emily Duffy, a 15-year-old from Limerick in Ireland, had the ingenious idea of creating a sleeping bag as convenient as possible for the homeless. “I wanted a bag that solves some problems encountered with conventional sleeping bag,” said the girl to the Irish Times. The newspaper reports that Emily Duffy “replaced the tissue, which becomes wet when it rains, by paper metallic bubble.”
The material is lightweight, waterproof and filled with air bubbles, concentrating the heat through the bag. A fire-resistant coating was also added to the metal casing of the bag which made its first appearance in 2015, during a show dedicated to young scientists. The bag is also equipped with reflective stripes and a pocket at the end: “The person who sleeps in it can put its dry clothes to prevent them from getting dirty or wet the bag becomes a pillow.” says the girl in the Irish Times. But that’s not all: the closure is Velcro, allowing entering and exiting quickly.
A bag made by homeless
The “Huffily Bag” Emily Duffy herself tested before putting it on the market, designed to last for years, “longer than a conventional sleeping bag,” rejoices the girl, who says many people are already using it in the streets of Dublin. The Mendacity Institute, a charity providing assistance to the poor, decided to launch a program, paying 20 Euros homeless two hours just to participate in the making of these new generation sleeping bags.
“While everything is electronic today, you can have a cheap product and handmade by unqualified people,” rejoices the Julian judge who authorized Emily Duffy to make her bag. The TheJournal.ie site, which also tested the reflective bag, reports that the judge is trying to improve the quality of the product based on feedback from the homeless community.