2.3 billion people don’t have somewhere safe, clean and hygienic to go to the loo. That’s more than a third of the people on the planet. Toilet Twinning is an initiative that funds the work of the Christian charity Tearfund. By twinning a toilet you help those in desperate poverty to have access to a proper latrine, clean water and the information they need to be healthy. It’s therefore about much more than the toilet itself. It costs only £60 to twin one toilet. As a church we started supporting this amazing initiative some 12 months ago and since then we have inspired our young people to twin many toilets within the parish.
Loo number 1 was funded during the Christian summer conference New Wine 2015, when the children organised, on their own initiative, a stall to sell amongst other things Loom Bands. They raised £60 and were able to twin one of our Parish Centre toilets.
Altrincham Grammar School for Girls selected Toilet Twinning as one of their chosen charities. The school twinned not two toilets but two whole toilet blocks.
St Mary’s Choir Trebles organised a huge cake sale. With the proceeds they were able to twin two church toilets with toilets in Bangladesh, as part of Christian Aid Week.
Altrincham Grammar School for Boys Christian Union planned and organised a cake sale and raised enough money for one toilet and plan to do more. Thanks to Ben Moore for organising this.
Our most recent loo was twinned during New Wine 2016 by the children, who made a stall and teamed up with some other friends to sell painted stones, beads and to offer henna ‘tattoos’. They raised over £100 for Toilet Twinning and with their share were once again able to twin another toilet.
If you wish to support this amazing initiative please go to www.toilettwinning.org or alternatively email Simon Wood on simon@b8re.com. Let’s make Bowdon a Toilet-Twinned town!
Simon Wood