Medway and Maidstone Soroptimists have been supporting Byron Primary School in their fundraising efforts. As part of their Rights Respecting School initiative, the children focused on Article 27 – ‘You have the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live’ (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) and SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation.
Byron School held an Easter raffle and chose Toilet Twinning as the charity to receive the proceeds. This was after being given 4 x Toilet Twinned certificates by the Soroptimists. They wanted as many of the children who come from socially deprived areas of Gillingham to take part buying raffle tickets. Each class would have Easter egg prizes as incentives. They wanted to raise enough money to buy 5 toilets. These toilets were for children living in poorer countries who did not have access to one.
An on-line presentation was used with children (age 5 – 11). This was to encourage discussion and awareness of the issues relating to need for clean water and sanitation. They viewed short videos produced by Toilet Twinning.
The Soroptimists provided details of the Toilet Twinning scheme with leaflets, raffle tickets and 48 easter eggs as prizes. This included 21 easter eggs kindly donated through the Community Champion scheme at Tesco in Gillingham.
The sum of £607.50 was raised and means the Byron children will be able to buy 10 toilets and learn how their efforts really make a difference …and they become CHANGEMAKERS.