WWhen the Jamaican University student, Rafevie Stewart, invented a practical model for the door handle that could purify himself after each touch, was welcomed as a potential Gamechanger for hospitals, hotels and other companies, with promising effects to control the spread of the disease, especially during Easter such as Covid-19.
Speaking in the launch of a recent product, Alison Dreiton, Assistant Secretary -General of the Caribbean Sea region (Caricom), a mass of 15 Caribbean members, described the invention as a “meaningful solution” for the region and “a savior design for life that suits our reality.”
Stewart, 30, was only 23 years old and demanded in Jamaica University of Technology When he depicted the self -doors doors model, he calls it, calls it XermosolHe says that he can kill 99.9 % of pathogens but safe for people and animals. Since then, he has been bringing the product, Patent below The Treaty of the Patent Cooperation of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and its marketing, and winning the Prime Minister’s Youth Award in Jamaica and Innovations for Commonwealth Innovations In this process.
Today, his invention is celebrated as a symbol of the growing group of talents of science and technology in the Caribbean region, where Dreeton described it as “a strong expression of what happens when innovation is rooted in the purpose and nourishes it.”
Stewart grew up in a poor family with his grandmother, in the rural agriculture community in Mount Brucebek. “Although the times were difficult, we never thought about it. We knew that we had something to do as a family.” He said. The software engineer and his cousin were the first to go to the university.
There, discovered his love for invention and entered a competition with his first idea: 3D modeling program that would allow people to suit clothes almost before buying online. When he began to volunteer in the hospital, his passion for innovation became about solving a problem.
“I saw how the patients were suffering, the assistance they needed, and how difficult the nurses,” he said. This added, he was an inspiration for Xermosol.
Although the invention did not resolve the need for the World Health Organization cleaning instructions in hospitals, the smart door handle in Stewart was an innovative tool that could be used alongside others, to control the infection.
She said, “We are very proud of it.” She added: “Many of the innovation that we see in health care is often from a country in the first world where there are more resources … but this does not mean that we do not have good ideas here.”
Kirk Anthony Hamilton, co -founder of DecliningA technical platform based in the Caribbean region, which connects creators, businessmen and investors through summits, programs and investment, said that there is an increasing desire in the region to address ambitious technical projects.
“The youth in the Caribbean region see the opportunities they lack, and they want to be part of it. They read stories about a man in a garage coming out in a concept, and two years in, the company is achieving a year worth $ 50 million,” he said.
He added that this was challenging the idea of success that is limited to professions such as medicine and law. “Now we understand … that there is this huge field to work in this that provides you with greater levels of opportunities and access and you can solve problems that go beyond your geographical boundaries, using technology.”
In the broader field of digital technology, companies such as software development company Pershev,, Which has a global workforce for more than 4000, she said it has seen 400 % increase in requests from developers in the Caribbean Sea between 2020 and 2024.
“The demand for software engineers during the Covid is an increased demand for software. “The companies started saying, hey … I need to develop new applications, because people cannot leave the house,” he said, adding that the Caribbean Sea region is largely compatible with the United States, both in terms of language and culture, which made it well suitable for its customers in the United States.
For Stewart, the shift in innovations and the increase in digital talents is “the challenge of legend that there is no great technology that changes life in the Caribbean.”