Why engineering?

My father was an aerospace engineer who used to take me to air shows. I was fascinated with how these massive aircraft would get into the sky. Then I'd go back home and take the toolbox out of the cupboard and try to work out how to put things back together again. That curiosity mindset was my father's doing.

My father died when I was young and my mum and my two sisters raised me, fuelling my passion even more. I knew from a young age the importance of women and how my sisters and my mum had to navigate life and navigate community. That formed my thoughts and my passions and beliefs about women's empowerment and creating solutions for women. 

I have this saying, fall in love with the problem because the solution will always change. I think everyone is an engineer and everyone can problem solve.

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Why did you create The Washing Machine Project?

I got this idea while I was on sabbatical in South India. I wanted to make a real impact on people's lives in the community I was staying in. I could not believe how long women and girls would spend hand washing clothes, 20 hours a week. Some had back pain, some complained of skin irritation. Everyone lacked opportunities. It takes so long to hand wash clothes and I could see this through my neighbour, Divya. She wanted to work but just didn't have the time. Most of her waking hours were spent on unpaid labour and washing clothes was a large part of that. She became my best friend and I promised to build her a washing machine. "One day, I promise you, I will come back here and give you a washing machine." That's what I told her and that's what I did. I designed a washing machine that could be used without electricity, using half the amount of water to that of hand washing clothes in my mum's kitchen. And I named it after Divya. It has had a few makeovers and a few iterations, a couple of additions here and there, and it's grown just like our team from a salad spinner to a chemical drum to now the world's first flat packable washing machine.

We're now in 15 countries. Positively impacting almost 30,000 lives, all thanks to our community, our supporters and partners

What are your plans for the future?

We're still very small, and we're still only impacting 30,000 lives. That's a tiny portion of the issue. We want to become a sustainable organisation in our operations but also grow and and scale our impact. So we want to touch the lives of more people through more machines distributed in more countries. 

In 10 years time, we'll be laughing at the time that we only made washing machines. In the long term, we want to design new products such as solar products and connected products, and really be using engineering for good. For me personally, I really want to promote engineering as a vehicle for for positive change. I want engineers to look at the engineering discipline and and want to be a part of the solution and and not the problem. I want to to inspire the next generation of engineers to to create solutions for good and for people like Divya. I really believe engineering should be used to help and not hinder the planet.