Be honest, have you ever considered how blessed we are to have access to clean laundry tools, water, and the electricity needed to use these modern options in our own day-to-day lifestyles? I had never sat with the reality that so many people around the world do not have access to these tools until I walked into the Whirlpool booth at a recent convention and saw a Divya manual washing machine for the first time.
After just a few minutes chatting with the Washing Machine Project in that Whirlpool booth, I knew that this was a cause that Village Home Stores customers and our community could get behind. We agreed to host a Washout event at our store, and it was a huge success! Thank you to all who came out to learn and connect with this cause during State Street Market Geneseo this year. Over the course of a few days, we were able to raise a lot of awareness for the efforts from the Whirlpool Foundation and The Washing Machine Project. You also helped us raise funds to champion these efforts. We knew a few people would show up to see the machines, but WOW! We had a lot of folks stop by. Press play below to watch a short recap video.
What is The Washing Machine Project?
But what is the Washing Machine Project, and why is Whirlpool involved? Well, as you know, Whirlpool is already in the business of making washing machines. The Whirlpool Foundation began a few years ago, looking for ways to make an impact in areas that don’t have access to laundry machines. When they discovered what incredible work The Washing Machine Project was already doing, they joined forces to help give them access to materials and a volunteer workforce from Whirlpool employees to build more manual washing machines and make an even larger impact with combined resources and efforts.
The Washing Machine Project began to take shape in 2017 when Dr. Navjot “Nav” Sawhney, an engineer from the UK, took a sabbatical in India with Engineers Without Borders. There, he became friends with his neighbor Divya and saw that she spent hours each day handwashing clothes. He knew his skillset could help come up with a better solution and give her back some time to spend in other ways outside of the laborious laundry tasks. Years later, he returned to India and gave her a manual washing machine.
Laundry Class is in Session
Once we started working with the Washing Machine Project to plan their time in town with some machines, we started to think outside the box a bit. How can this story of inspiration and innovation be shared with our town in a way that can maybe spark the next big idea to improve lives? So, we reached out to Geneseo High School and arranged to bring a manual washing machine to some classes there. We really had a great time bringing this lesson to the students and seeing them get inspired was so amazing.
The classes learned about Dr. Nav’s 7-year process of gathering information about this problem, and the many iterations of the manual washing machines he designed before he arrived at the first version of a Divya manual washing machine. Students in Mr Deets’ Geneseo High School classes were able to wash clothing by hand and see and learn about the manual washing machine design(s). Their teacher even followed up in the following days with a lesson that continued this discussion in class. Who knows, the next big impact may come from an idea sparked from this day!
These Divya (named after Dr. Nav’s neighbor during sabbatical) manual washing machines help to reclaim time and improve lives in each community that receives one. Using these manual washers can save up to 75% of the time and 50% of water usage! For a few days, we had two manual washers in town.
Reclaiming Time, Improving Lives
Our team and our entire community learned that half the population of the world hand-washes clothes. Half! And it should not be a surprise to any reader here that the task of laundering clothes is most typically given to women and girls in a community. Washing clothes and linens by hand takes lots of time. And we learned that this average time was equivalent to 20 hours a week in most cases. That’s 20 hours a week that should be instead spent going to school, earning income, spending time with loved ones, and of course resting and relaxing!
It was only in 2024 that The Whirlpool Foundation teamed up with The Washing Machine Project to help champion this cause. With Whirlpool entering the picture, now this cause has more access to donated materials and a large volunteer workforce from Whirlpool staff to help build machines and keep costs down. In just that first year together, they were able to send 645 machines out. This was a result of nearly 4,000 hours of volunteer work from Whirlpool employees, and it impacted over 11,000 lives and counting as a result! Those stats are just from their first full year partnering. Imagine how many more lives will be impacted by the continued efforts as this cause moves forward. There are even plans to improve the Divya design and distribution methods. The project has also established a baseline for how they will measure this impact in the coming years. You can access the Global Laundry Divide Report here.
Thank You, Geneseo!
During our washout event at State Street Market, we had a live radio broadcast in the store from HOG Country Radio and Regional Media, which was such a fun way to add to our event day. We even had the chance to hop on air and chat between songs about this cause. Oh yeah, and we gave away a gorgeous KitchenAid stand mixer! Congratulations to Sue S. We had well over 300 entries, and she was our winner!
As you can see from this article, Geneseo was BUZZING on State Street Market Day, and we were so happy to have a lot of those shoppers stop into our store to learn about this amazing cause. Many of you also donated, and we are so thankful for that.
Our event is over, but the Washing Machine Project and the Whirlpool Foundation are still making big moves this year to help get these manual washers in more communities that need them. You can still make a donation to this cause here anytime. And follow along with TWMP on their YouTube channel and Instagram page as well. Thank you again to our amazing customers and business community for showing up in a big way for our #washout event. “We Make a Village,” and you are a part of it!