The Washing Machine Project

70% of the world’s population does not have access to an electric washing machine. Women across the world spend up to 20 hours per week hand washing clothes leading to skin irritation from detergents or back and joint pain.  The duration of  unpaid domestic work is one of the key barriers that stop women and girls reaching key learning milestones. 

We are proposing our solution, The Divya, a manual washing machine that only takes 30minutes/wash as opposed to 120 minutes required for handwashing. Utilising only 20L of water/cycle, our machine reduces clothes washing demands by 15 hours/week. Relieving the intense time demands of clothes washing could give women and girls back time to pursue education, community work or increase their paid labour participation. 

If scaled to our total SAM, our innovation could change the lives of 2,514,200 families in the Global South. 

70% of the world’s population does not have access to a washing machine. Our solution seeks to reduce the barriers that prevent girls and young women - especially those living in conflict and emergency situations from reaching key learning milestones. Our research conducted across 6 countries in the Global South found that the majority of women start hand-washing clothes before the age of 16, with some beginning as young as 8 and 6 years old. 

Stressors associated with exposure to conflict and emergency situations can place children under significant pressures to take on new responsibilities earlier than expected. Globally, 3.7 million refugee children remain out of school with research suggesting that the barriers preventing children from accessing education become harder to overcome with age. This is reflected in the significant drop between primary and secondary education enrollment rates. Globally, 63% of refugee children attend primary however only 24% go on to achieve secondary education. 

We are currently operating in Iraq, where there are 500,000 people in refugee camps. 350,000 do not have access to an electric machine, due to lack of access to water and electricity. These factors have been the driving force of The Divya. 

Our solution, the Divya uses a technology that generates agitation between clothes to achieve a successful wash, this agitation loosens and removes dirt from clothing. The motion caused by the rotation of the machine separates the dirt from clothing in the water to the outer drum for removal during draining. The rotation is produced by the beneficiary via a manually hand-cranked handle; the user sweeps the handle in a broom-like motion to generate the required rotation, the design is engineered to utilise gravity and momentum in an advantageous capacity aiding the user in gaining speed.

The beneficiary fills the Divya with clothes and detergent initially before closing the front of the drum. They then add water through a silicon sealed hatch for the first two stages of the cycle, the wash and rinse. The beneficiary will drain and refill the water between each stage, never having to interact with the detergent filled clothes or submerge their hands in the water, reducing hand irritation. Finally, the beneficiary will spin dry the clothes, where the centrifugal motion removes excess water from the clothing to produce a finished wash of only damp clothes requiring a washing line dry.

Our solution serves refugees and low-income populations who are forced to wash their clothes by hand in rivers, lakes and buckets.  We found this burden tends to fall primarily on women and girls in developing countries and/or refugee camps and/or Informal Tented Settlements (ITSs). Because washing clothes can be achieved by hand, this area is often overlooked when refugee camps or development programmes are established. Our research across 3 IDP camps in Iraq found that only 40% had access to an electric washing machine. However, a significant majority of those with access were not using them - due to mechanical failure, expensive repair costs and poor electrical and/or water supply. 

The beneficiaries remain at the heart of TWMP which is why we use a Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) methodology. We have partnered with Oxfam and Iraq Response Innovation Lab and are testing 50 of our own prototypes in Iraqi refugee camps currently. Through surveys, focus groups and 1:1 discussions we allow our intended beneficiaries to voice their concerns and problems regarding current washing solutions, and to test our prototypes driving our iterative design process. This facilities the creation of an appropriate solution in line with the needs of our beneficiaries.

Every child has the right to an education. Despite this more than half of the world’s school-age refugee children do not get an education. Refugee families often rely heavily on girls for domestic duties like collecting water or fuel and taking care of younger siblings. This poses as a barrier to reaching key learning milestones. 

TWMP’s research found the majority of women start hand-washing clothes before the age of 16, sometimes as young as 6. Our machine reduces these demands by 15 hours/week.  By taking a gender-synchronised approach we aim to dismantle this barrier to education for girls. 

As refugee camps are established there are several key water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) areas that are addressed as essential for providing IDPs with a sustainable standard of living - clothes washing is often overlooked. However, the medium and longer term impacts that this duty has on the women is a major barrier to improving their standard of living. Our research highlighted that providing a time, labour and water-saving affordable alternative to hand washing is a highly cost-effective way of reducing gender barriers to education which leads to the improvement of the average standard of living within camps. 

Our project is innovative in three ways:

1. Challenges and builds on existing WaSH research.

1. Delivers a high quality solution in a neglected area of product development.

1. Provides a new, unique, highly cost effective method of increasing standard of living within refugee camps.

There are three companies globally that are producing manual washing machines. However, these companies specifically target the global north market.  This is reflected in their pricing structure, charging in excess of $189 and up to $379 per unit. These are popular amongst  festival-goers and environmentally-conscious individuals who choose to live off-grid. Our prototype has multiple comparative advantages including: a larger drum size to cater for the large average family size in the developing world, requires minimal force so all members of a family can use the device, and requires a lower volume of water than its rivals so it is suitable for water scarce environments such as camps.

Our solution the ‘Divya’ uses existing washing-machine technology ideology in combination with a manual driving force. The front-loading, lift and drop three-baffle technology to generate agitation between clothes can be seen in most UK electric conventional washing machines. In this technology the clothes which have been inserted into the machine horizontally are held within a drum, this drum has three internal baffles and rotates inside an external casing. As the drum rotates the baffles ‘lift’ the clothes, until they reach the top of the drum and ‘drop’ them back down due to gravity, this causes the clothes to rub together generating the agitation, this is repeated in both directions to maximise the clean. 

Foaming is a combination of soap, water and air, to generate an effective lather, the baffles rotating inside the Divya encourage this reaction. Although soap lather does not directly clean clothes, it increases the length of time detergent sits on clothing allowing it to penetrate deeper into the soiled material, aiding the quality of wash. Most machines using this technology are electronically powered. Ours as an off-grid solution utilises manual power and strategic design to maximise the advantages of gravity and momentum through a hand-cranked rotating handle. The next iteration of the machine will include varying technologies which aim to increase lather and provide other methods of generating manual power which both improve the usability for the beneficiary and improve efficiency and quality of the wash.

Our solution the ‘Divya’ uses existing washing-machine technology ideology that is found in electric washing machines. However we use this in combination with a manual driving force. Competitor products use similar technologies, however utilise different methods of manual power forces, have higher water demands and lower drum capacities. The Divya uses less water, can wash more clothing per cycle and is ergonomically designed to encourage good posture. Our design considers the unique challenges our beneficiaries face, and keeps this at the heart of all design processes. 

Our surveys found that given the average family size in Iraq is 9 people. Beneficiaries wanted to be able to maximise the amount of clothing that could be washed in one cycle. That is why we have chosen a 7kg drum capacity. Water in the camps we visited were transported through a pipe from a mains supply to taps at various locations within the camp. Although water efficiency was not identified as a significant criteria for the success of the product by beneficiaries themselves, camp managers highlighted that a significant portion of their budget was spent on the delivery of clean water. Reducing the amount of water required for one of the most consumptive activities within camps will save water and money whilst addressing an area of WaSh that is routinely overlooked. We are also currently investigating the re-use of ‘grey water’ (dirty water coming out of the machine) for other uses such as in agriculture to create a circular flow of resources. 

Demo 

In every part of the world, women spend more time participating in unpaid work than men do (OECD, 2014). Collecting water, taking care of younger siblings, household chores are all tasks that fall heavily on girls and bar their participation in education.  UNHCR (2018)  found that these factors are amplified as girls get older. Data from the top three sub Saharan countries hosting refugees, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya, show that there is a greater proportion of refugee boys than refugee girls in school despite girls making up half of the school-age refugee population. 

Developing effective and meaningful products for the BOP in low-income markets requires contextual understanding of the unique challenges that individuals within this market face. We keep our beneficiaries at the heart of all design processes and are currently conceptualising other innovative ways to respond to these challenges. Guesalaga and Marshall (2008) found that more than 50% of the purchasing power in developing countries resides in the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP). 

Individuals at the BOP in the Global South having a buying power of $149 a year specific to household goods. Our beneficiaries indicated that the affordable price-point of a manual washing machine for them would be $31-44. A competitor company Gentlewasher explored the potential for their manual machine to be used in Malawi. Their primary research found similar findings to our own including: 

i. hand-washing is the dominant approach to clothes washing in the developing world  

ii. this burden falls primarily on women and girls (as young as 6)

iii. hand-washing is highly time consuming taking up to 4 hours per load 

OECD (2014) finds that if we can reduce the time women spend participating in unpaid work down to three hours a day, women generally increase their time in paid labour and or education by 20%. At TWMP we recognise we cannot solve the whole problem, but we are part of the solution to breaking the self-perpetuating system that works against girls and women. 

We are currently piloting 50 of our machines across 50 families in Iraqi refugee camps. Whilst women/girls are the primary beneficiaries of our innovation, lowering the time women spend participating in unpaid labour can also have positive implications for the wider family. Reducing clothes washing demands by 15 hours/week could provide women with more time to assist the educational development of their children - including girls, whilst simultaneously challenging traditional constructed gender roles. When women are empowered to lead fulfilling lives, children and families prosper.

Our research found that the average family size within Iraqi refugee camps is between 8-13 people. Taking this into account, we estimate that our machines are serving 50 people directly and at least 400 indirectly. By Q4 2021 we aim to sell another 750 machines, to another serve 750 women and girls and their wider families across two markets i.) directly to consumers in the developing world (for $44), ii) agencies working with refugees (for $126).  

In 5 years time, we aim to be selling 18,000 machines in one year. Across the 5 years, including our current pilot we have the potential to serve 36,200 women and girls directly. It costs $31 to produce one washing machine, allowing for a $13 profit margin for sales to consumers and a $95 margin for sales to agencies. We aim to direct a portion of these profits towards a buy-one-give-one model to increase our impact. 

TMWP is currently piloting an off-grid machine in an Iraqi refugee camp with the aim to launch our B-to-C product by Q4 2021. Following our successful pilot in Iraq, Oxfam have requested 200 more machines - which will be sold for $100.  We have hired 3 specialist fundraising interns who are applying for $5m worth of funding over the next six months. Funding obtained via sales and grants will be used to facilitate the production of 750 machines for the launch of our B-to-C stream in Q4 2021. 

In 5 years time we aim to be selling 18,000 machines per year, and have impacted 36,200 women and girls in total. Saving 10,400 litres of water per person per year and 780 hours per person per year. 

Following prototype testing with Oxfam Iraq, CARE-International and the Iraq Response Innovation Lab we would like to further these partnerships to their counterparts within Jordan. In addition to the 670,000 registered Syrian refugees, asylum seekers, refugees and migrants from other countries reside in Jordan with 83% living outside refugee camps, many in ITSs. UNICEF Jordan currently reaches approximately 8000 people (=1,230 households) with WASH services per year. We are currently discussing the use of our washing machine within their provision of family hygiene kits. By December 2020 we aim to have developed an updated prototype that we can take to Jordan to begin piloting. 

TWMP is currently in its start-up phase, with expansion as its primary organisational aim.  Scaling innovation within the sector continues to be the most challenging aspect of humanitarian innovation (Elrha, 2018). TWMP is a registered social enterprise and therefore will be investing all profits back into the business to impact more communities. Being a for-profit business that has charitable causes, but operates solely on an international level, means we are often ineligible for funding within the humanitarian sector - who traditionally fund projects targeting our beneficiary demographic. Despite working towards similar goals to improve the lives of marginalised populations, these opportunities are traditionally directed towards registered charity or not-for-profit companies. 

Another barrier that may limit our impact in the next year and five years are the expertise gaps of our current team. We lack expertise in analytics and marketing - specifically inbound product marketing and the production of price strategies that is required in order to maximise its effectiveness and optimise return on investment. We would also like to develop our long-term business development knowledge further, in order to unlock global distribution and achieve mass scaling. 

TWMP’s team is currently 100% voluntary. All volunteers are undertaking study in higher education and/or hold a full-time job elsewhere. TWMP hopes to have the financial means to employ 3 full-time staff by 2021 (1 salary = $4508 including pension and NI). Without the funding to do so, we continue to face the challenge of scaling our product without consistent, full-time organisational capacities. 

In order to overcome these, we are seeking out partners and mentorship opportunities that would provide us with global platform and communication opportunities to spread TWMP’s message. By increasing our organisational profile via social media, reports, talks, and calls to action we hope to not only increase support for TWMP but more importantly encourage and inspire others, consequently fulfilling the potential intelligent engineering has within the development sector. 

TWMP cannot solve the whole problem, but we are part of the solution. The global platform offered by Solve would enable us to be able to highlight this overlooked issue, whilst being able to connect with various different networks to form a collaborative approach in shaping a solution. The importance of localisation will be key to addressing these issues.  The global network Solve can offer would help TWMP form relationships with experts on the ground with essential contextual and cultural knowledge needed to form sustainable solutions. In order to continue to develop our revenue streams we have just hired 3 specialist fundraising interns who are applying for $5m worth of funding over the next 6 months. 

TWMP has also received coverage from a range of media outlets globally: including the BBC, and The Guardian, and prominent news outlets in India including The Hindu, the largest news outlet in India, and The Logical Indian. We will continue to engage with the press to spread awareness of the disproportionate challenges that refugee women and girls face, as well as the solution we offer. 

All 14 staff members are part time volunteers. We have 4 management team members and 10 interns/volunteers working underneath them. Our core members include Founder & CEO Nav who holds engineering skills and expertise, Business Strategy Lead Rachel, Design Lead Beth and Project Officer Scott. We recently hired 5 interns via our partnership with the University of Bath. All 5 interns are currently completing a Masters in International Development and are working across several domains including project expansion, policy, fundraising and communications. The other 5 are volunteers who hold a range of expertise including digital marketing and engineering. 

TWMP is currently made up of 4 core members and 10 interns. 

Founder & CEO Navjot brings his engineering expertise and knowledge of market-ready design, development and implementation from his work at Dyson, Jaguar Land Rover and Prakti. He sits on the board of Engineers Without Borders UK (EWB-UK) and through his experience building lifesaving cookstoves in rural India has a deep understanding of working with a similar demographic of beneficiaries and the importance of social inclusion and gender/cultural sensitivities. He holds a Masters of Engineering and a Masters in Humanitarianism, Conflict and Development.  

Strategy Lead Rachel brings consultancy experience from Eden McCallum and knowledge acquired from her Masters in International Development with Economics to develop and shape TWMP’s business strategy. 

Engineering Lead Beth brings her experience in consumer goods from Howdens where she designed new products and responded to innovation and changing trends. Beth’s humanitarian product design approach is holistic and  human centred. She holds a first class honours degree in Product Design. 

Project Officer Scott, holds a Ph.D in Law and a Masters in International Development, Conflict and Humanitarian Action. Scott is the Founder/Managing Director of his own social development enterprise in Cameroon and brings his experience and expertise in community service and development to lead the expansion of TWMP’s innovation into new countries. 

Collectively, TWMP holds a range academic and practice expertise across engineering, strategy and finance, programme work and policy that are vital to achieving our goal of alleviating the burden of hand-washing globally. 

Our current partners:

1. CARE-International - have provided us with access to refugee camps in Iraq & vital contextual knowledge. 

2. Oxfam / Iraq Response Innovation Lab- have provided us with $20,240 of seed funding, expertise and contextual knowledge. 

3. SetSquared: A business support programme - that has provided us with pitch feedback and mentoring. 

4. Santander: Winners of Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Fund: $2530.  

5. University of Bath: Winners of Bath University Alumni Innovation Award: $18,975.  

70% of the world’s population does not have access to an electric washing machine. These people wash their clothes by hand in rivers and streams, lakes and buckets. Across the world the burden of washing clothes falls primarily on women and girls. Hand washing can be an extremely time-consuming task, taking up to 20 hours per week for some, leading to chronic back and joint pain as well as skin irritation from detergents. Hand washing clothes can also use up to 40 litres of scarce water in places in the world where water is a precious resource.

Our innovation, a cost-effective, portable, labour- and water-saving, manual washing machine, provides an alternative to hand-washing clothes for displaced and low-income people. By reducing demands of washing clothes by 15 hours/week beneficiaries can use their time to pursue other activities which enrich their livelihood and communities, whilst reducing the physical burdens. We have developed a prototype off-grid washing machine weighing only 12kg and using only 20L of water/30 minute cycle.

We have identified three target (A&B are primary C is secondary) markets for our B-to-C revenue stream launching in 2021:  

A. Direct to consumers in the developing world 

SAM: $110 million (2.5 million families)

B. Agencies for distribution in refugee camps

SAM - $1.9 million (14,200 families)

C. Consumers in developed countries seeking eco-conscious solutions or solutions to outdoor activities such as camping  

We aim to launch our  B-to-C revenue stream by Q4 of 2021. Our primary target markets are:

1. to consumers in developing countries (for $44)

2. agencies for distribution in refugee camps (for $126)

It costs $31 to produce one washing machine, allowing for a $13 profit margin for sales directly consumers and a $95 margin for sales to agencies. 

Within the first market identified we have calculated a market need of over 3.6million families in refugee camps who do not have access to a washing machine. Taking into account relevant assumptions we have estimated an obtainable market size of $1.9million in refugee camps. 

Within the second market identified we have calculated a market need of over 974million families who lack access to a washing machine globally. Our initial focus within the developing countries is on the five largest nations by population in the Global South (discounting China): India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil and Nigeria. Taking relevant assumptions into account we have estimated an obtainable market size of over $108 million. 

We have also identified a secondary market. This is  eco-conscious consumers or individuals seeking solutions to outdoor activities in the global north (to be priced at $126).  Accenture forecasts that 11% of European households will be off-grid by 2035. However, the majority of these will be using renewable forms of electricity - thus approximating we can take 1% market share, giving us an obtainable market size of: $409,169. This is a conservative estimate and may not reflect the total demand. 

The organisation has hired three specialist fundraising interns to expand our scope of funding applications and to form corporate partnerships.Using an assumed win rate of 15% of the $5m worth of grant funding over the next 6 months, we are on track to grow by 1821% in 2020. However, we are also aware of our need to invest in: producing longer term plans; developing sustainable funding relationships; improving our internal operational systems; improving impact measurement and evidence cases; improving our marketing and engagement, and most important of all facilitating feedback loops with our beneficiaries. 

In order to continue to work towards achieving our outcomes and strategic objectives over the next three years, we will focus on: 

• Supporting and empowering displaced individuals and those living in refugee camps - our mission 

• Delivering globally responsible development solutions

• Improving our business resilience 

We are actively seeking to build relationships that will improve and amplify our work in reducing the barriers that women and girls face in achieving educational milestones and empowerment. The access to mentorship, technical expertise, exposure and business and entrepreneurship training that Solve offers would help us develop and provide us with valuable guidance we need to develop business resilience. In addition to this, becoming a Solver would provide us with a platform to attract new and different income and supporters and would allow us to connect and work with like-minded individuals, that is necessary to achieve sustainable solutions to address the pressing issues faced around the world. 

We are aware of our need to invest in: producing longer term plans; developing sustainable funding relationships; improving impact measurement; improving our marketing and engagement, and most important of all facilitating feedback loops with our beneficiaries. We have identified two key expertise gaps that we hope to develop. The first is in analytics and marketing - specifically inbound product marketing and the production of price strategies in order to maximise its effectiveness and optimise return on investment. The second is related to long-term business development knowledge. In order to unlock global distribution and access people at the BOP like Divya, we need to achieve mass scaling and utilise marketing methods that are the most effective in different parts of the world. So that we can help break down the self-perpetuating system that works against young girls. We are seeking partners who can help us reach those at the BOP. 

Following prototype testing with Oxfam Iraq, CARE-International and the Iraq Response Innovation Lab we would like to further these partnerships to their counterparts within Jordan. Jordan is one of the largest refugee hosting countries relative to its population (89 refugees per 1,000 inhabitants). In addition to the 670,000 registered Syrian refugees, asylum seekers, refugees and migrants from other countries including Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Pakistan and Yemen reside in Jordan. We are also currently in talks with UNICEF and UNHCR in Jordan about potential expansion and partnerships. Securing a partnership with two of the largest organisations involved in the humanitarian sector would increase TWMP’s reach and impact significantly. In addition to this, this exposure would draw attention to an overlooked area of WaSH. 

We are also very keen to partner with William Kenneth Aulet, Professor of the Practice, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management at MIT in an advisory manner. In order to fulfill our organisational potential and long-term goals we recognise we need to continually develop and grow our expertise. In order to achieve our strategic objectives  we need to develop our long-term business development knowledge further, so that we can unlock global distribution and achieve mass scaling. His expertise in entrepreneurial marketing, technology commercialisation and entrepreneurial financing would significantly help in addressing this expertise gap.

Analysis has found that despite the 2015 global commitment to ‘leave no one behind’  displaced populations remain one of the most marginalised and under-represented globally (ODI, 2018). When refugee camps are established, several key areas of water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) are identified as essential. However, because washing clothes can be achieved by hand, this area is often overlooked. As a result, people are forced to wash their clothes by hand in rivers, lakes and buckets. OECD (2014) finds that if we can reduce the time women spend participating in unpaid work down to three hours a day, women generally increase their time in paid labour and or education by 20%.

In order to continue to work towards achieving our strategic objectives over the next three years, we will need to focus on delivering a globally responsible development solution that can reach as many people as possible.  We would use The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion to increase TWMP’s reach and impact. Any funding raised will be used for equipment, materials, testing, implementation and production costs required to manufacture 200 machines more to be launched in Iraqi refugee camps in Q4 2020. 

As women constitute a larger part of the world’s poor and conduct the majority of domestic caretaking and labour, they are more dependent on basic provisions such as WaSH (UNICEF, 2014). The burden of hand-washing clothes falls primarily on women and results in them spending countless hours queuing to collect water, to access a sink/shower. They are the primary beneficiaries of our innovation. TWMP is dedicated to producing a solution that can reduce clothes washing demands by 15 hours/week and water required by 50%, in order to allow women and girls to lift themselves out of poverty as well as provide a solution to an overlooked area of WaSH that is already challenged by scarcity. OECD (2014) finds that if we can reduce the time women spend participating in unpaid work down to three hours a day, women generally increase their time in paid labour and or education by 20%.

We would use the Innovation for Women Prize to increase TWMP’s reach and impact. Any funding raised will be used for equipment, materials, testing, implementation and production costs required to manufacture 200 machines more to be launched in Iraqi refugee camps in Q4 2020. 

In 5 years time we aim to be selling 18,000 machines per year, and have impacted 36,200 women and girls in total. Saving 10,400 litres of water per person per year and 780 hours per person per year. We have found three markets where our innovation is needed. These are a 25.9 million person market within refugee camps, a 4.9 million person market in developing countries and a 40.2 million person untapped market in the developing world. If scaled fully within all three markets, our innovation has the capacity to reach 71 million people. Any funding raised will be used for equipment, materials, testing, implementation and production costs required to reach as many people as we can.