Thousands and thousands of individuals world wide spend 20 hours every week bent over a bucket of water, handwashing their laundry.
Divya was once amongst them. She’s the girl who impressed the creation of a brand new, hand-crankable washer that works with out electrical energy.
The story traces again to 2019, when Navjot Sawhney moved from London to South India to make stoves with Engineers With out Borders.
Whereas dwelling there, he befriended a brand new neighbor: Divya. Sawhney was blown away by how a lot time she spent washing and wringing out garments every week.
To assist, he constructed Divya a guide washer, a prototype that he would later good and mass produce by a grassroots motion referred to as The Washing Machine Challenge, which Sawhney nonetheless serves as CEO.
Each machine that’s delivered to a household in want is called Divya, in honor of his neighbor.
“The Washing Machine Challenge has now distributed Divya washing machines to households and communities in India, Iraq, Lebanon, United States, Mexico and Uganda — impacting nearly 30,000 individuals,” reads a mission assertion on the group’s web site.
“Implementation is tailor-made to satisfy the partnering areas’ particular cultural, financial, and environmental circumstances, guaranteeing the answer is efficient and related in native contexts.”
By catastrophe, displacement, and financial hardship, many households stay with out electrical energy and energy.
An estimated 60% of the worldwide inhabitants depends readily available washing, and 70% of these households place the burden of water assortment and family chores on ladies and younger ladies.
Handwashing steals away valuable time that may very well be spent working, studying in a classroom, tending to members of the family, or just taking good care of themselves.
The Divya washers, which require a couple of minutes of hand cranking for a thirty minute cycle, lower that point down by 76%.
“After I put garments into the machine and wash them, it means I can multitask,” stated Kyifuko Ramla, a Divya person dwelling in Uganda. “I can go away the garments within the machine and put together a meal for my son, or repair him one thing to drink, and are available again to it afterward.”
Ramla additionally talked about the bodily aid of utilizing her Divya washer, which eliminates back-bending aches and drained, cracked palms.
“I now not bend whereas washing,” she instructed The Washing Machine Challenge. “I don’t pressure my physique.”
Not solely does the Divya washer save time and bodily power, it additionally cuts water utilization in half — generally extra — which is important for households who stay in areas the place clear water is scarce.
“With this we are able to wash our garments a lot simpler, even when we don’t get ample quantity of water. We are able to wash our garments on this with minimal water consumption,” stated Anjali, who lives in Kuilapalayam, India.
“Most, we want 10 buckets of water to scrub 10 garments in hand,” she continued, patting the drum of the washer. “On this washer two buckets of water can be greater than sufficient.”
Just lately, The Washing Machine Challenge partnered with the Whirlpool Basis, a company that has been working to offer communities with sustainable washing options since 1952.
The joint organizations have a brand new purpose: influence 150,000 individuals over the subsequent 5 years.
“We’ve discovered collectively, labored collectively, listened collectively, washed collectively,” the businesses stated in a joint assertion. “Collectively, we’re engineering options to reclaim time and alter lives.”
Header picture courtesy of The Washing Machine Challenge
