Today, on International Woman’s Day, we’re very proud to be able to bring you a woman’s story of engineering, technology, innovation and invention solving an everyday problem.

In Kinshasa, capital of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, traffic congestion is a serious problem. Apparently, few drivers bother to obey signs, lights, or even human traffic directors. It was a snarled free-for-all. Until the robots showed up.

The Congolese engineer Isaie Therese designed and built two 8-foot-tall, classic Robbie the Robot-style automatons to take over traffic-directing duties from their human forebears, and apparently, the plan is working.

“As a motorcyclist I’m very happy with the robot’s work,” one commuter told CCTV Africa. ”Because when the traffic police control the cars here there’s still a lot of traffic. But since the robot arrived, we see truly that the commuters are respectful.”

click through for a video report on her achievement