Lack of access to clean water and effective sanitation impacts the health of a community as well as their ability to develop economically.
Thanks to contributions from staff at Diocesan House the Diocese has been able to provide two toilets and hygiene education for a community in Bangladesh and DRC.
Toilet Twinning is a partnership between Cord and Tearfund, two international charities who got together because 2.5 billion people don’t have somewhere safe & hygienic to go to the loo. Right now, more than 50% of hospital beds in developing countries are filled with people who have an illness caused by poor sanitation or dirty water (UNDP). The lack of a loo makes women and girls a target for sexual assault as they go to the toilet in the open late at night and many girls drop out of school due to inadequate sanitation provision.
Potentially Africa’s richest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo has suffered merciless exploitation and conflict over its vast resources of timber, minerals, oil and gas. It is now only one country away from being the worst place on earth for life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living.
588 latrines have been built by the community working together, as Nyanzale didn’t have any toilets before the project began. Work began in Nyanzale by raising awareness about the benefits of sanitation and hygiene. They then distributed tools to groups of 10 households, to enable them to work together to dig a pit and build their own latrine. The project has encouraged community members to use locally-available materials for the floor, walls and roof. Statistics from the Nyanzale Health Centre indicate that malaria rates have decreased by 78% and diarrhoea rates by 53%.
You can watch more about the impact of Toilet Twinning here – What is toilet twinning?
Could you join us and twin your church toilets this year?
This was written by Helen Taylor.
