Half the Global Population Washes Clothes by Hand: Whirlpool Foundation, the Washing Machine Project Helping Address With Thousands of Manual Washing Machines - Seite 2

As a portable unit, built with commercial-grade components and stainless-steel construction, the machine is easier to be fixed remotely and has the potential to be recycled at the end of its life.

Divya, the namesake of the machine, is named after Navjot Sawhney's former neighbor, whom he became close friends with during a work assignment in India engineering cook stoves. He was struck by how much time Divya would spend doing back-breaking chores, including hand washing clothes for hours each week. At that time he made a promise to return to Divya with a manual washing machine and help make her life a little easier. In March 2024, in a joint trip with the Whirlpool Foundation, he did just that.

"We greatly admire the mission and work of The Washing Machine Project and see an opportunity to help impact more lives collectively than either of us could individually," said Pam Klyn, Whirlpool Corporation executive vice president, corporate relations and sustainability. "Driven by shared passion and purpose, Whirlpool Corporation employees are lending their time and talents to help make this long-term vision a reality, recognizing that this initiative goes beyond washing clothes. It is about reclaiming time and improving lives for these individuals who will now spend much less time doing laundry which opens the door to new opportunities."

In the first five years of its collaboration with Whirlpool Foundation, distribution is planned for underserved populations in rural and urban areas in India, Mexico, Brazil, the Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Uganda. Implementation will be tailored to meet the partnering regions' specific cultural, economic, and environmental conditions, ensuring the solution is effective and relevant in local contexts.

Since The Washing Machine Project was founded in 2019, the organization has conducted ethnographic research in 13 countries and interviewed more than 3,000 families in India, Uganda, Jamaica, Nepal and the Philippines to gain insight into their clothes washing tendencies. In addition to completing successful pilot studies, The Washing Machine Project has distributed Divya washing machines to families and communities in India, Iraq, Lebanon, the United States, Mexico, and Uganda. In 2024 The Washing Machine Project's plans to scale across numerous countries, partnering with organizations like the Whirlpool Corporation and international development and humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Save The Children, Oxfam, Care International, and Plan International.