Malvern Panalytical recently launched a Global Values Program. Part of this is giving employees one day per year to volunteer in their local communities. In the UK, 17 of their employees (and family and friends) volunteered to work with The Washing Machine Project.
The project is about providing people in displaced and low-income communities with off-grid (so no electricity needed) washing solutions so they don’t have to spend all day washing clothes by hand. This will help them to take charge over their lives and use the time they would have been hand washing to do other things – like cooking, gathering food, or even working for wages.
The washing machine is called the ‘Divya,’ after the woman who inspired The Washing Machine Project. The model that the volunteers helped to assemble is the Divya 1.5, which is the latest iteration of the design. The volunteers helped manufacture and assemble 30 manual washing machines that were sent to Mamrashan Refugee Camp in Iraq on August 16.
And on a sustainability note: all of the scrap metal will be taken to a scrap metal facility and the proceeds will be donated back to the project.
It is fantastic to see how their employees stepped up to help others who need it. The volunteers jumped right in to make the splashes that will create lots of ripples. Each person, making small contributions, has really made a BIG difference in the refugees’ lives!