Flush Away Poverty

Every day 40% of the World’s population don’t have a private, hygienic and safe toilet to use

Last weekend, Kevin and I attended camexpo 2013 at Earl’s Court in London.  This is an annual 2 day Exhibition aimed at Natural and Complementary Medicine/Practitioners.

Whilst perusing the Stands, we came across the Lepicol one.  Lepicol are very imaginative when it comes to ‘dressing’ their Stand, and they didn’t disappoint this year.  The walls were covered in toilet seats of every colour, many with lovely paintings on.

We asked the girls on the Stand why the toilet seat theme this year, and they began to explain to us about Flush Away Poverty and Toilet Twinning.  www.toilettwinning.org  This is an Organisation that builds latrines in poorer Countries like Bagladesh, Burundi, DR Congo or Cambodia.  For a £60 donation, we could choose one of the toilet seats, and our donation would ‘buy’ the building of a toilet in one of these Countries.  We didn’t hesitate.  £60 was a small price to pay.

We just couldn’t believe that 2.5 BILLION people, every day, have no access to a private, clean toilet.  No wonder there’s so much dysentry and cholera in these Countries, and the mortality rate is so high. Disease must be rampant. Every minute 3 children under the age of 5 die because of dirty water and poor sanitation, and many women get bitten by snakes as they squat in the grass. Due the lack of a loo, women and girls are vulnerable as they walk to the edge of their community to go to the toilet in the open, late at night.

Here’s a picture of the toilet seat we purchased.  It’s covered in pictures of latrines in various parts of the World, in Villages and Communities where once there was no such facility.

We’re not going to put this toilet seat on a toilet. I have to say that it’s not the best quality, and the toilet seats in the Clinic, especially the colonic clinic, have to be robust to say the least 🙂  No, what we thought instead, was that we put it on the toilet wall in Reception area for all to see.

Linda Booth

Nottingham Health & Wellbeing Clinic

Plains View GP Surgery