RS Group plc, parent company of Allied Electronics & Automation and a global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions, entered the second year of its three-year social impact partnership with The Washing Machine Project Foundation, a global charity that combines innovation and sustainable engineering to provide displaced and low-income communities with an accessible and affordable off-grid clothes washing solution.
Over the course of the past 12 months, RS Group has focused its fundraising activities on the project, rallying staff, customers and suppliers around the world to pledge their support. Donations in the first year of the partnership amounted to nearly $280,000, including a corporate donation of nearly $125,000 made in April 2022.
RS Group also provided parts for the construction of the Divya 1.5, the latest version of the manual-crank washing machine. The Divya is easy to maintain, requires no electricity and uses 50% less water than handwashing, reducing the time spent on this backbreaking task by as much as 75%. This enables individuals who typically spend as much as of 20 hours per week washing clothes in rivers and lakes to access work and education.
Employees across RS Group volunteered more than 500 hours of their time to assist with the assembly and deployment of 140 machines to refugee camps in Iraq and Lebanon, helping an estimated 1,350 people. The Group will be stepping up its efforts this year by providing space and volunteers for the assembly of another 290 machines for delivery to communities in the Congo, Jordan, Uganda and Iraq, it reports.
The scale of the support has ranged from fundraising by individual staff members to significant donations from around the business. Staff members also donated their time to provide the charity with expertise in areas including website redesign, legal advice, social media, marketing and data analytics and sourcing, manufacturing and logistics solutions to support the deployment of machines to Africa, India and South America.
“Our partnership with The Washing Machine Project is very much a key focus when it comes to our commitment to providing sustainable solutions for a better world,” said Lindsley Ruth, CEO of RS Group. “We have achieved a lot in our first year thanks to everyone who has so willingly supported this initiative, and we are continuing to work together to improve the lives of many more people around the world.”
Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project, added: "The problem of handwashing clothes is huge, and we can't combat it alone. We believe in the power of partnerships with a purpose to make our work possible. Our partnership with RS Group is key to accelerating our global impact. In a short space of time, we have come a long way in giving people the dignity of clean clothes. RS Group has been integral in making this possible. Thank you to everyone who has worked tirelessly to make it so. We're looking forward to positively impacting and empowering many more people's lives."
