It was on a trip to India that Nav Sawhney was first inspired to come up with a creation to help women in poverty. The 29-year-old engineering student was on a placement in the rural village of Kallipalayam, which had limited access to water and electricity.
Every day he would pass his next-door neighbour Divya, and see her hunched over a bucket, scrubbing clothes. ‘I walked past this woman’s house every day, and every day she was washing clothes,’ Nav says. ‘We got chatting and she told me how her back hurt and she showed me the rash on her hands.
I thought there must be something I could do, and set my mind to finding a solution.’ A modern washing machine was out of the question for Divya, 30, who does not have regular electricity, so