About Us

FREO2 Foundation (FREO2) is a global not-for-profit organisation that aims to reduce the number of deaths of babies and children suffering from pneumonia or hypoxia in low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC’s). We envision a world where every child can breathe, live and thrive. Our mission is to improve access to oxygen to save lives and reduce inequalities in health. 

Pneumonia remains the leading cause of death for children under five and is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Pneumonia kills 800,000 children each year, claiming the life of one child every 39 seconds. 

Medical oxygen is a proven life-saving intervention, shown to significantly reduce pneumonia mortality by up to 35%. However, oxygen treatment remains inaccessible to many severely ill children in LMIC’s. Traditional oxygen cylinders are extremely costly and hard to come by in remote areas, while commercial oxygen concentrators require regular maintenance and a constant energy supply. In many low resource health facilities, power outages are frequent and often deadly; a hypoxic child cannot survive beyond 7 minutes without constant oxygen supply.

The FREO2 team is committed to saving lives by developing and deploying our novel medical oxygen technologies to improve access to oxygen and patient care at the under-resourced periphery of health services. FREO2 oxygen innovations are affordable, developed specifically to be installed in the most remote parts of the world and can provide a constant supply of oxygen, even during a power outage. 

We are passionate about making sustainable impact, that’s why we’ve trained (and continue to expand) a team of in-country biomedical engineers and technicians who ensure that our FREO2 systems are properly maintained and routinely serviced. FREO2 technologies are now saving children’s lives in health facilities in Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. 

So far we have treated 1,415 children with FREO2 enabled oxygen, we’ve expanded across 7 health facilities and trained 156 health care workers.

Our Story
Solving problems has been at the heart of all of our work. As University of Melbourne physicists, Bryn, David and Roger worked extensively on high technology sensors at international laboratories and played pivotal roles in establishing the Australian Synchrotron. Jim had spent much of his early career as a clinician in remote rural areas of Mozambique and was at the time working in global health at the Nossal Institute, developing health diagnostic tools. It was the chance meeting of these individuals that spawned several collaborative projects focused on reducing the mortality rates of children in low resource settings.

In 2010, a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds met at the University of Melbourne to discuss the challenges of global health. It was here that Bryn first learned a staggering statistic: pneumonia is the single largest killer of children worldwide. Although oxygen is a proven life saving medicine, traditional oxygen cylinders in low-and-middle-income countries can be extremely costly and many oxygen concentrators require regular maintenance and a constant energy supply - something inaccessible for many low-resource health facilities. From here, the physics team began to explore creative ideas on how to provide oxygen without relying on electricity. This early work was unfunded until 2013 when the team was awarded a Saving Lives at Birth Grant and the Fully Renewable Energy Oxygen project was born - FREO2.

Ideas need to be Implemented to have Impact - these three “I’s” are key to achieving lasting impact. Recognising this, the team established FREO2 as a not-for-profit organisation to implement novel oxygen technology in-country. Since then, we have gone on to build local FREO2 teams in Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya and developed the first ever oxygen technology that can produce, store and deliver medical-grade oxygen using no electricity.

FREO2 Highlights
2011
Our first technology patent: the FREO2 Siphon.

2013
Seed funding with Grand Challenges Canada.
Scoping visits to Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

2014
Establishment of key partnerships with Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda.

2015
Gates Grand Challenges Explorations Award.
People’s Choice Award at the World Pneumonia Day N.Y.

2016
FREO2 Foundation formed to lead technology transfer.
USAID Validation Grant Award and Laerdal Foundation Norway Grant.
First test-system installed in Uganda.

2017
FREO2 wins the Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology.
FREP2 Uganda Social Enterprise was established to install, manage and maintain FREO2 systems.
FREO2 Solar wins Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Lives and Birth Award.
Kröber Medical agreement signed to collaborate as a manufacturing partner.

2018
FREO2 demonstration systems installed in Kenya and Nigeria.
FREO2 becomes the first group to produce medical oxygen using no electricity.

2019
FREO2 LPOS clinical trial begins in the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital paediatric ward.
Funding secured for a battery-less FREO2 Solar.

2020
First FREO2 Oxylink prototypes delivered in Uganda.
FREO2 wins Grand Challenges Canada grant to scale in Uganda.

2021
First production units of FREO2 Oxylink 5 delivered in-country.
FREO2 commences a PILOT program in the Pacific.
Delivery of FREO2's ODS pre-production prototype.

2022
FREO2 wins Oxygen CoLab prize to scale our systems in Tanzania.

OXYLINK: Designed for health centres that have access to grid electricity, however, may experience many short-term power outages. 

Timely and uninterrupted oxygen therapy is important in reducing childhood mortality, especially from pneumonia which is currently the biggest killer of children under five years of age. Reliable supplies of oxygen are scarce in the low-resource settings with the highest mortality rates. 

Features include:

• FREO2 PROTECT - internal power conditioning system that prevents damage that may be caused by faulty energy supply. 

• PRIORITISER - Seamless integration of backup oxygen cylinder that is designed to automatically supply oxygen to a patient in the event of a power outage. 

• Bedside delivery with the FREO2 ODS - Oxygen Distribution System: 

The Oxygen Distribution System simply pipes oxygen at low pressure to the bedside, avoiding costly copper piping and dramatically minimising any losses due to leakage. This enables health care workers to efficiently and easily deliver oxygen to patients without needing to drag concentrators and cylinders around the ward. The robust filtering system has been developed for the dusty environments where it is installed.

LPOS: Delivering oxygen, even during prolonged blackouts.

Our Low Pressure Oxygen Storage is designed for health centres with access to power facilities, however, they experience prolonged blackouts. In remote communities, blackouts can sometimes last as long as 1-8 hours a day. Most oxygen systems will automatically turn off without constant oxygen supply. However, LPOS is able to deliver to patients whilst also storing any excess oxygen from the OXYLINK. This ensures that when the power turns off, LPOS automatically switches over to the oxygen storage system and continues to deliver oxygen to the patient. 

OXYPUMP: Portable Oxygen on the go to Enable Safe Referral

Children with pneumonia will often be referred to urban hospitals. However, many will not survive, as a hypoxic child cannot survive beyond 7 minutes without constant oxygen supply. Oxypump is a low cost portable oxygen concentrator capable of safely meeting transit oxygen requirements and therefore enabling sick children to be referred and access the required level of medical care. It can be powered directly from the 12V auxiliary plug of a car, and delivers up to 3 LPM of continuous flow medical oxygen, enough for one child. It is robust, dust, vibration and shock proof. With OxyPump, patients have access to a constant supply of oxygen in an ambulance service or through the referral system.