Soroptimist Clubs all over the UK have been supporting Toilet Twinning for several years, by fundraising, by twinning their toilets and buying vouchers for others to twin their toilets.
Lorraine Kingsley, CEO Toilet Twinning, explained the importance of building toilets in areas where sanitation is poor or non-existent.
1 in 3 people across the world don’t have somewhere safe to go to the toilet. Bad sanitation is one of the world’s biggest killers: it hits women, children, old and sick people hardest. Every minute, a child under the age of five dies because of dirty water and poor sanitation. Around half the people in the world have an illness caused by bad sanitation.
Women and Girls suffer most, as in Africa, half of young girls who drop out of school do so because they need to collect water – often from many miles away – or because the school hasn’t got separate toilets for boys and girls. Not having a loo puts people at risk of being bitten by snakes as they squat in the grass and makes women and girls a target for sexual assault as they go to the toilet in the open.
We must do what we can to make a difference.
Providing people with clean water and basic sanitation is one of the most cost-effective ways to release people from poverty: for every £1 spent on water and sanitation, more than £5 is returned through saved time, increased productivity and reduced health costs.
People are asked to donate £60 to twin their toilet, which not only builds new toilets but provides education for the communities in the importance of hygiene in saving lives.