We are delighted to announce the Winner of
The Nichols Award 2022
Nichols are delighted to announce that the humanitarian project, The Washing Machine Project, has been awarded £20,000 of prize money to enable inspirational growth, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit for years to come.
With the mission to provide displaced and low-income communities with an accessible, off-grid washing solution, The Washing Machine Project champions the mission to empower women with the time to take charge of their lives. As 70% of the world’s population lacks access to an electric washing machine, the Project seeks to help unburden over 3,000 families worldwide from this issue that disproportionately affects the well-being and livelihood of women worldwide.
Unveiled to the industry at Nichols’ annual award presentation at the Marylebone Hotel in London, the Award sought out those working to deliver positive change in the world, from individual and small businesses, who have or continue to dedicate their time to helping others, to programmes that transform the lives of many. The Award follows the foundation of Nichols’ dedicated equality and diversity programme, Loving Variety: Valuing All Regardless of Identity, Experience, Title or Years. The programme is designed to guide, champion and encourage people regarding all aspects of equality and diversity, and to embed a fully inclusive culture within the Nichols organisation. These principles lie at the heart of this new Award, and align with The Washing Machine Project.
Nichols promotes openness, communication, the sharing of ideas and the empowerment of all. By selecting The Washing Machine Project to receive this brand new award, we hope it will help connect the project with a new audience that aligns with our vision and values of creativity, fun, intuition, spirit, openness, gratitude, positivity and respect.
Commenting on success of The Washing Machine Project, Kathryn and Frances Nichols, owners of Nichols, said “At Nichols, we believe in creativity to inspire and change the world. We’re delighted to to be able to award innovative changemaker, The Washing Machine Project, with this new Award.
“We have been humbled to see such a diverse range of applicants, which reflect the Nichols ethos of above and beyond, and our vision of creativity to inspire. The Project champions positive change across the world, and provides an innovative solution for thousands of families worldwide. “We take inspiration from our guiding star, founder Mike Nichols, whose humility, kindness and positivity set an example to us all. As such, celebrating the inspiring work of others is a fitting way to honour his memory and his work in building a business that is now able to engage with organisations such as this to champion women worldwide and engineer a more sustainable future for all.”
Finalist entries
Anti Racist Cumbria
Formed with the aim of making Cumbria the UK’s first actively anti-racist county, Anti Racist Cumbria’s approach is based around impacting leadership, transforming education, communications and campaigning and growing grassroots. The group help identify and dismantle racism and embed anti-racism into the structures of the county whilst educating and engaging predominantly white communities with anti-racism and uplifting the experiences, contributions and voices of black and brown communities.
Barbara Brighouse
Barbara has dedicated her career to providing water, sanitation and health education to poor rural communities in East Africa. Through her work delivering projects in Tanzania as part of Christian Engineers in Development, she has helped transform the lives of over 50,000 people. As a result of this work,children have the time to attend school rather than spending up to five hours a day fetching water, teachers are prepared to move into those communities, clinics get built and the general health of the population improves - leading to innovation, entrepreneurship and industry.
Panathlon Foundation
A national charity which gives thousands of young people with disabilities and special educational needs the opportunity to take part in competitive sport. The Panathlon Foundation provide multisport, swimming, boccia, football, ten-pin bowling and a range of impairment-specific programmes which take place across 41 English counties and Wales. In a survey of service users, 81% of schools said Panathlon had enabled children’s first ever experience of competitive sport.
Washing Machine Project
By providing displaced and low-income communities with an accessible, off-grid washing solution, the Washing Machine Project’s mission is to empower women by alleviating the burden of unpaid labour through sustainable solutions. The Washing Machine Project has successfully carried out pilots in Iraq and Lebanon and received orders from multiple countries in excess of 3,000 washing machines. In 2022, the Washing Machine Project’s plans are to fulfil these orders and scale-up across numerous countries.
Willowdene Rehabilitation
Based in the heart of West Mercia, Willowdene provides an opportunity for lasting life transformation through a proven approach to rehabilitation, that includes trauma-informed therapy, training, work-experience and resettlement. With programmes that cut across criminal justice, public health and women’s services, at the heart of Willowdene’s mission is a commitment to ensure that students have access to interventions that will enable them to step into the life they were made for.
Highly Commended entries
As well as celebrating our Nichols Award Finalists, we were delighted to award six entries the accolade of Highly Commended. These entries illustrated outstanding work which could simply not go unnoticed.
Aoise Keogan-Nooshabadi
Aoise is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Supply Change, a tech-for-good social enterprise helping organisations buy from social enterprise suppliers of goods and services. Aoise co-founded Supply Change to help create the systems to allow Government and private sector spending to be easily directed to impact-driven organisations. Supply Changeʼs vision is a world where all goods and services are procured with social and environmental value at their centre. They are a female led organisation with values at the centre of their work, led by innovation, diversity and collaboration.
Marleen Elias and the Malawi Street Kid’s Project
Marleen Elias is an NHS ward manager who shines a light in her profession with her commitment to ensuring the highest standard of healthcare. In 2016, Marleen started the Ebenezer Family Centre to make a difference in the world and particularly in the lives of the most vulnerable street children in Malawi. Her team of volunteers and local workers provide solutions such as daily feeding programmes, housing, education and child protective services to get children off the streets and reintegrated to society.
Nahla Summers
Nahla Summers is a social entrepreneur who is driven by measuring the success of societies through the value of kindness rather than financial performance. Nahla set up a steering group of teachers to co-design a 185 assembly video programme supporting secondary schools to embed a culture of kindness into schools. The programme explores and identifies emotional intelligence through storytelling and positive psychology. Building communities of children who are better able to deal with conflict, can more easily understand the world, and become leaders of the future.
Our Big Picture
Our Big Picture is a Grimsby based arts and heritage social enterprise founded by Paula Denton, who recognised the lack of opportunities for communities to be involved and engage with high quality arts. At the core of their mission is the belief that everyone, no matter what their background, has a right to art and heritage in their lives. Our Big Picture is responsible for inspiring a whole region of local people though procuring practical creative art exhibitions, supporting young artists, assisting with various school programmes and many other activities.
Sali Hughes
Founder of Beauty Banks, Sali Hughes left home at the age of 15 and only the kindness of friends kept her off the streets while finding her feet in London. Based on her experience, Sali founded Beauty Banks against a backdrop of spiralling hygiene poverty in the UK. Its mission is simple and urgent, to provide essential toiletries to those who cannot afford them. Beauty Banks has delivered hygiene products to food banks, homeless shelters, NHS trusts, schools, family centres and churches all over the UK.
Women in the Food Industry
Women in the Food Industry is an organisation that champions and celebrates women by providing a unique, dedicated space for them to collaborate and share stories within the food industry. Their aim is to change culture so that it is geared towards gender equality and empowerment through the delivery of mentoring programmes and research, and by working in partnership with trade organisations and universities to provide practical help, advice and funding to those looking to be part of the food industry.