Rev Cate Edmonds: Toilet Twinning champion



Cate with her twinned toilet

Vicar Cate Edmonds has gone above and beyond the call of duty in her mission to get people twinning their toilets. It all started when she twinned a loo at home for her husband’s Christmas present. Since then she’s been on a roll, encouraging twinnings all across her three parishes.

We asked Cate a few questions to find out what it is about Toilet Twinning that keeps her coming back for more.

Introduce yourself in 50 words or less:

Reverend Cate Edmonds, Diocesan Adviser for Education Chaplaincies and Vicar of three parishes. I’m married with two grown-up children, have travelled extensively and hate having to use poor sanitation. But that’s only when I travel, then I come home to good sanitation and feel guilty that there are others who don’t.

How many toilets have you twinned (directly and indirectly)?
Directly I have twinned eight and indirectly another five or six, with more on the way as I spread the news.

[Through Cate, two schools, three churches and the Old Deanery have all twinned loos, with others to follow soon.]

How did you first hear about Toilet Twinning?

Through Cord mailings

What stood out to you and why did you choose to support Toilet Twinning?

It’s immoral that women in particular miss out on education due to lack of sanitation, and just the idea of not having a private place to do the most personal but basic requirements of life is appalling.

How have you encouraged others to support Toilet Twinning?
I am constantly encouraging others to do this, for example, for secret Santas. My husband and I asked for donations for a wedding anniversary present.

Do you have any special Toilet Twinning moments?
Yes − people think I have a toilet fetish or am just mad but it makes them take note. 

What do you appreciate about Toilet Twinning?
It’s practical and, particularly with children, you can engage them in looking up their toilet twin online.

What’s your Toilet Twinning ambition?
That everyone in the world should have access to a toilet and clean water.



How to wash your hands

Well, its been a busy week, starting with World Porridge Day before heading into National Curry Week and National Chocolate Week. After all this focus on food, it seems only reasonable that we finish off with Global Handwashing Day on Saturday.

Although perhaps we should have all washed our hands before embarking on a national week of eating.

If you need any reminders about why handwashing is important, refresh your memory with a doctor’s view of this most essential practice.

Once we’ve got the ‘why’ sorted we need to make sure that we’re washing our hands the right way, for example making sure that we use soap and not just water. If you’re unsure, there are some rather detailed instructions out there!

Apparently, it takes 15–20 seconds to wash your hands properly. If you don’t want to just count to 20, you could try singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to yourself – probably in your head – as this is about the right length.

If you don’t want people to think you’re dropping hints about your birthday, you could invest in a musical handwash timer. These handy (no pun intended) gadgets fit onto your soap dispenser and, when pressed, light up and play music for 20 s.

Unfortunately some families can’t afford soap. Felizo Bigirimana is 35 and lives with his family in Burundi. Hygiene conditions are better now that they have their own latrine, but they don’t always have enough money to buy soap.

Felizo Bigirimana in front of his farm plot 

Cord (one of Toilet Twinning’s founding charities) has set up a Community Seed Centre that provides good quality seeds and cuttings to people like Felizo. This helps them to start growing produce to feed their families and sell for income.

By twinning your toilet, you’re helping Cord and Tearfund to support families like Felizo’s to have access to the basics that we so often take for granted.

Guest Post: Reverend Richard Littledale - A waste of money

Down the toilet

An old friend of mine used to do a party trick. He would ask for a £5 note and then say that there were three songs on it. He would list the songs off as “God save the Queen” and “Rule Britannia”. In answer to the puzzled expressions on the audience’s faces he would then rip the note in half, hand it back to the poor volunteer and say “Who’s sorry now!”. There must be more useful things to do with paper money than that, surely?

Origami artist Won Park would say that there certainly is. He can transform American Dollar bills into anything from a Koi Carp:

Image: maxcdn

to a camera:

Image: maxcdn

There is no doubting the skill involved – but couldn’t the money be turned into something a bit more lasting?

Maybe one of his other sculptures gives a clue:

Image: maxcdn

Without the need for any clever folding or origami magic – paper money could be turned into a real toilet. Far from flushing that money down the drain, it could be turned into a life-changing piece of sanitation. This is what you do:

·                 Take 12 £5 notes

·                 Flatten them out, rather than folding them

·                 Send them to Toilet Twinning and twin your loo

·                 Visit your loo’s location on Google maps

·                 Avoid all party tricks which involve tearing up (yours or other people’s) folding money.

The Rev Richard Littledale is Pastor of Teddington Baptist Church in Middlesex and is a graduate of Spurgeon's College, London and Saint Andrews University. A tutor at The College of Preachers, he has a particular interest in innovative and effective communication. His preaching has featured on BBC Radio 4 and he is a regular on BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought. He is the author of Stale Bread?: A Handbook for Spreading the Story and The preacher’s A to Z and writes as a columnist for The Baptist Times. You can find his blog at http://www.richardlittledale.wordpress.com/

His new book Who needs words: a Christian communication handbook, was published last week in print and on Kindle 

Lifting the lid: the story behind the loos at Bukeno School

At Toilet Twinning we love to hear about toilets. New toilets, old toilets, in homes, schools, at work, pretty much anywhere. We just love toilets.

But hang on a second – what about the people who use those toilets? Don’t we care about them too? Don’t we want to know more than just where they go to the loo?

The answer, of course, is a resounding yes! Earlier this year staff from one of Toilet Twinning’s founder charities – Cord –  went to Burundi to see the impact that their work is having and to meet some lovely loo users.





One visit took them to Bukeno School in Giharo province of Burundi The school had some things we would expect – latrines, water, teachers and students aplenty, but was without others – namely electricity.

The teachers at Bukeno School are (from left to right) Elie Ntakiyiruta (age 33), Evangeline Niyonsaba (age 22), Ferdenand Nibitanga (age 25) and Emmanuelie Niyingarukiye (age 28).

These teachers live at least a five-hour walk away from the school. To increase staff recruitment and retention, an on-site house has been built by Cord for teachers to live in during the week. Teachers now just make their 20-km journeys home at the weekend, leaving on Saturday morning and returning the following day.

Unfortunately, as the school building and teachers’ house are without electricity (as are three other schools in the area), the day has to end when the sun goes down (around 7pm), leaving little time for marking papers or planning lessons!

Worryingly, although the school does have toilet blocks and a water source, their supply is sometimes disrupted by a neighbour. If this happens teachers collect water from a spring located a mile away. However, a longer term solution to this problem is needed and the teachers are planning advocacy for the school and greater political action to ensure the water supply.

While the students seem to be enjoying their school, a local council leader and the teachers believe that things could be improved further, whether by installing solar power or building a football ground.

It’s clear that the school is looking ahead, choosing to focus on what it can do and the positive impact it can have.

Beauty and the bog

Vital though toilets are, they’re not generally considered works of art or a natural subject for photography.

We’d like you to reconsider and view the loos you visit with an artistic eye, after all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Our friends at Site Equip and Loos R Us have launched a photo competition to create a 2012 Toilet calendar supporting Toilet Twinning.

While there are many weird and wonderful toilets out there, don’t feel that you need to find the world’s most unusual toilet (although we’ll certainly want to hear from you if you do). The challenge is to look beyond the ordinary, to find images that give a different take on toilets. Site Equip and Loos R Us are looking for “scenes that are funny, inventive, poignant or exciting”.

If you’re in need of inspiration, or feel that this is all a bit amateur, why not take a look at professional photographer Richard Hanson’s collection of striking pictures (look for P*ssed off, under Projects).

Of course, some might say that you can’t beat a good framed certificate of a latrine in Burundi, but they might be biased.

The top 12 images will be published in the 2012 calendar and the overall winner will also receive a canvas print (of any of their photos – not necessarily a loo!).

All entries must be submitted digitally via email or on a CD. For more information on how to enter, what the judges will be looking for and all the t&c’s, visit the competition page.

You have until the 23rd November to submit your best shot. Good luck and happy snapping!





Photos courtesy of & copyright Richard Hanson, www.hansonphoto.co.uk. Top left – Mongolia; Middle – Brazil.

A brief history of toilet humour

Today is the launch of the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And as the festival has a history of linking laughs with loos (at the 2009 Festival, the tragicomedy ‘Waiting for Godot’ was performed in the St James public loos) we thought it only appropriate we devote today’s On The Blog to toilet humour.

According to Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to British Humour, humour was invented by John Cleese in 1066. Potty, or ‘toilet’ humour Mr Foreigner claims, is at once the best, worst and possibly the funniest kind.

Here is John Cleese explaining his recent discovery at the Science Symposium held in Brussels early that year:

Not ones to pooh-pooh the opportunity for a wee giggle, here at Toilet Twinning we’re quite fond of the odd pun. According to Mr Foreigner, “the pun is a rare and elusive creature outside of the UK”. Here it is in its natural habitat:

Those of you who follow us on Twitter will be used to our absolootely shameless use of puns in our, ahem, t[wee]ts. But it’s with good cause! It’s because we think it’s out of order that 40% of the world’s population doesn’t have somewhere decent to go to the loo. And this is just one of many shocking stats on sanitation.

So go on then, hit us with your best – and most hygienic – toilet jokes. Puns especially welcome. Leave them in the comments section beloo. And finally, we leave you with these words of blessing:

May your life be like a roll of toilet paper, long and useful.

Images:

John Cleese The Scientist from John Cleese Podcast #32 The Scientists

Pun from Johnny Foreigner’s Guide to British Humour

Toilet Twinning celebrates Burundian Independence Day: With dignity comes peace.

Ndagijimana Fulgence, Cord Burundi’s Programme Manager and a Burundian himself, gives his thoughts about the journey that his country has been on since its independence.

1 July 2011 will mark the 49th year of independence for Burundi from two successive colonial powers, Germany and Belgium. Since 1962 up to now, there has been some progress in terms of infrastructures, schools and life has improved in many different ways.

Some of the benefits of independence are being able to control one’s own destiny, to live without fear of an external master and to respond to basic needs. These elements are also signs and indications of peace.

In a life of a country, as in any living organism, there are good and difficult times. Burundi, as a country, has been no exception. A series of wars and civic unrest made it difficult to achieve the ideals that our ‘independence heroes’ lived for, fought for and died for. Destruction of livelihoods, lack of unity between the sons and daughters of our beloved country, exile to other countries, massive killings, inability to accommodate differences and cherish diversity have all been experienced in this country formerly independent from other colonial powers.

A number of organisations have stepped in to help heal the wounds of war and divisions; a much needed helping hand to contribute to the efforts of both government and civil society organisations to build a country where everyone is respected and his or her contribution to the construction of the nation is valued. Cord came up with innovative ideas to help people positively deal with root causes of conflicts, get the skills and mechanisms necessary to solve conflicts or mitigate their destructive effects, and along the way lead decent and a better life.

Toilet Twinning has been one of the genius ideas. The simple concept is about having toilets in the west twinned with latrines in the remote communes of Rutana Province. The process helps support more people in getting latrines and provides privacy and dignity, improves personal and domestic hygiene, resist water born diseases and build peace.

Our ‘independence heroes’ had dreams of a Burundi where people are able to cater for their basic needs, lead healthy and quality lives and where conflicts are positively dealt with when they arise. It is amazing how the work that Cord and Toilet Twinning does is continuing the legacy of our heroes, building peace and improving people’s lives. Wish us luck as we make this a reality.

Notes
Toilet Twinning was started by Cord in 2009, and is now a partnership between international charities Cord and Tearfund.

Cord has been working in Burundi since 1996, to enable sustainable and peaceful resettlement of returnees and vulnerable people in Rutana province.

Photos

1. Ndagijimana Fulgence, Cord Burundi’s Programme Manager. Photo copyright David Morphew / Cord.

2. Fulgence talks with a family in Burundi. Photo copyright Cord.