02/11/2022 | News release | Distributed by Public on 02/11/2022 10:18
Fuelled by a passion to use her engineering skills to help a community 1000s of miles across the globe, Khadijah embarked on a once in a lifetime trip to Nepal.
A project team came together from a range of countries and backgrounds and, after spending time at Kathmandu University learning about the ethics of sustainable development, the team made their way to the remote village of Dharmechaur where they planned to install a solar-powered grinding mill for the local community. The mill would provide the community with the ability to grind rice, providing a sustainable and much-needed source of income for the village.
She said "I was able to take the principles and experience I'd gained developing a highly sophisticated solar aircraft and apply them in a very different way. I worked with a team member from Nepal to install the battery connections and we used equipment that was much more basic than that for the PHASA-35 aircraft. The fact that we didn't speak the same language didn't stop us completing the task successfully. It hit me at that moment. Sustainability really does have no boundaries whether that's geographical, cultural or technological."
Khadijah returns to BAE Systems to a role in Maintenance, developing the technologies that are helping to transform the way we support aircraft. For her, the trip was life-changing and a stark reminder that sustainability, and our responsibilities to protect the planet, really do have no boundaries.