What is Toilet Twinning?

This blog post has been provided by the wonderful people at Toilet Twinning to show how your donations alleviate hygiene poverty in some of the world's poorest communities - Thank you for all you do, Toilet Twinning.  

You can support this cause for World Toilet Day by clicking the link below and making a purchase - Toilet Twinning – The Cheeky Panda UK 

Without proper toilets and clean water, people are trapped in a vicious cycle. Sickness increases, children miss school, parents can’t work. Toilet Twinning helps build toilets in communities who have never had access to a toilet before. 

Toilets are more than a place for you to do your business. Toilets increase health, provide safety, increase the wealth of a family and help children stay in school. They are essential to daily life, and yet - often people don’t want to talk about them! 

Toilet Twinning are lifting the taboo on poo and helping to flush away poverty. The Cheeky Panda are joining them in celebrating the humble toilet and raising awareness for the work of the charity Toilet Twinning on World Toilet Day - 19th November.  

Did you know that 1.7 billion people in our world don’t have somewhere safe to go to the toilet (WHO/Unicef). 

Without proper toilets and clean water, people are trapped in a vicious cycle:

• They’re likely to become sick through sanitation-related diseases
• Illness means they cannot work or farm their land, so they earn less or grow less food
• Children often miss school, because they are ill or, because they’re busy collecting water
• Girls sometimes drop out of school altogether when they start their periods if there are no toilets or changing rooms
• Parents have to pay for medicines or food, so they may fall into debt
• Women and girls risk being attacked or bitten by snakes as they go to the toilet in the open, especially if the culture dictates that they have to go out at night

Water and sanitation projects enable families to build a toilet, have access to clean water, and to learn about handwashing and other hygiene principles.

Dignity is restored when the whole family can use a private, hygienic toilet at their home and no longer have to squat in the bush.

ISAAI’S STORY

Issaï used to feel deeply afraid as she ventured into the bush at night to go to the toilet. Most of the homes in her village didn’t have toilets or had toilets that weren’t properly built – so Issaï’s village was in a pretty bad state.

‘It wasn’t safe for old people like me to go out to the toilet late at night. And when the rains came, there was water everywhere.’  

Recently, our partner built Issaï a toilet of her own, at home. And they are doing the same for many other households in the area.

‘My latrine means I don’t have to go out into the bush late at night, where there are reptiles and other dangers. From now on, I can use the toilet quietly at home, undisturbed, without the whole village knowing.’

TOILETS, TAPS and TEACHING - a lifesaving trio 

By donating £60 to twin your toilet, you can help fund a project in a community that will enable families to build a basic toilet, have access to clean water and learn about hygiene – a vital combination that saves lives.

When you twin, Toilet Twinning sends you a certificate to hang in your loo – showing a photograph of your overseas toilet twin and GPS coordinates so you can look up your twin’s location on Google Maps!

Read more about the work of Toilet Twinning - https://www.toilettwinning.org/