A bishop is urging churches to twin their toilets with a bog in Burundi to help flush out disease from poor sanitation.
The Bishop of Monmouth, Dominic Walker, is supporting World Toilet Day on Friday (November 19) to draw attention to basic health conditions in one of the poorest countries in the world.
He hopes churches will donate £60 to twin their toilet with a latrine in Burundi, the exact location of which can be pinpointed using Google maps. www.toilettwinning.org
Toilet Twinning is a partnership between development charities Tearfund and Cord which has provided safe toilets for more than 9,000 people in Burundi since it started in 2008. It is estimated that every minute three children under five die because of poor sanitation or dirty water.
Bishop Dominic says, “Now you can spend a penny and help flush out disease among the poorest people in the world. This is an imaginative campaign which strips life back to the essentials and reminds us that millions of people are still denied basic facilities and human dignity which we take for granted every day. I urge you to support it.”
The initiative is also supported by Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, AM, Presiding Officer of the National Assembly, who has twinned a toilet at the Senedd, and leaders from other Welsh churches.
Rev Hywel Meredydd, director of Tearfund in Wales says, “Most of us assume a decent toilet is bog standard but for a third of the world’s population, their lives are at risk because they don’t have a safe place to go to the loo. We are thrilled that the Welsh Assembly and church leaders have not washed their hands of the part they can play in saving lives.”
