Big dreams and dream bogs
Jess, Bridget and Emily are ambitious. Along with their friends they have high hopes for their future. But for one of them, there’s an obstacle between the young woman being able to fulfill her dream: a toilet.
Bridget lives in the Rukungiri District of Uganda. All too often in developing countries like Uganda, girls like her drop out of education early – because their school does not have a toilet. So their dreams of a job fade and they end up as desperately poor banana farmers like their parents. Until recently, 20 girls dropped out of Bridget’s school each year.
But not any more, thanks to the work of Toilet Twinning and people like Jess and Emily. Last year, Jess and Emily, with the support of fellow students at Warwick University held a year-long fundraising campaign, holding a squatting relay on World Toilet Day, cake & clothes sales, and an A-poo-stic night… As a result they raised enough to twin almost 50 loos in the Students’ Union.
Thanks to amazing fundraising like this, our partners in Uganda have been able to build new toilets at Bridget’s school and even install a fresh water tap stand. They’re also teaching the whole community about hygiene, and helping families build their own latrines. Already, 65 more girls have enrolled at the school. Bridget is staying put and dreaming big.
Kicking up a stink.
If you’ve read your Bible, you will have read about a God who is on the side of the poor. You will have seen that the first time God spoke to humanity we were tasked with acting as caretakers for the planet. We haven’t done a great job, which is why we need people like you to help kick up a stink about poverty. At Toilet Twinning we’ve created a campaign called Toilet Twinned University which challenges students to twin the toilets around their university or college through fundraising events and become Toilet Twinned.
At the recent Fusion Student Workers conference, the chief executives of Leeds and Loughborough Students’ Unions encouraged us to engage more with our local Students’ Union and to build positive relationships through mutually beneficial activities. Campaigns like the Toilet Twinned University are a great way for students, the SU, the church and the Christian Union to work together and to allow positive relationships to grow, as well as lifting people like Bridget out of the poverty.
Toilet Twinning provides 
decent loos, clean water and lifesaving information about hygiene in some of the poorest places on the planet. For every £60 you fundraise, you can twin your toilet with one halfway around the world. For £240 you can even twin a school toilet block. You’ll receive a framed picture of your twinned latrine with the gps coordinates so you can see exactly where it is.
For more information, you can find us at:
