Manchester: Catholic college leads toilet twinning programme

Manchester students and teachers have helped flush away poverty for hundreds of people – by joining a campaign to twin their college toilets with latrines in poor countries.

A year-long fundraising drive by sixth-formers and staff at Loreto College has netted £4,000 for Toilet Twinning, which raises funds to provide safe latrines, clean water and hygiene education in some of the world’s poorest nations.

Toilets around the Catholic college now boast certificates showing their ‘toilet twins’ in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Chad – complete with colour photos and GPS coordinates.

Over the year, students and staff have thrown themselves into many ingenious fundraisers, including: leg-waxing for male students and staff; henna hand-painting; cake and halal sweet sales; beard-shaving; and gaming competitions. One male student was sponsored to wear a dress all day; a tutor group raised sufficient funds for a toilet block at a school in rural
Chad by wearing onesies.

One teacher ran the Manchester Marathon for Toilet Twinning and another busked regularly in a college foyer, singing and playing the guitar.

Senior Tutor Helen Gettings, who led the fundraising campaign, said students had been moved and motivated by news of the recent rape and murder of two girls in India. The teenagers were attacked as they were forced to relieve themselves in fields in the dark, for lack of a latrine at home.

"This magnificent sum will improve the quality of life of people in those communities not afforded the advantages that we enjoy, and rather take for granted,' said Helen. "Loreto’s students and their teachers have made a magnificent effort in making a tangible and very practical improvement to people’s lives in other parts of the globe."

Loreto’s efforts this year bring the total of toilets twinned by the college to 103: two years ago, they raised sufficient funds to twin 37 toilets."Toilet Twinning CEO Lorraine Kingsley said: "Loreto’s 103 twins make it the most successful school in the country in terms of fundraising for Toilet Twinning – and we can’t thank them enough. Having a proper toilet for the first time is life-changing for a family in a poor community, and is the first step up out of generational poverty. Loreto’s twins are all the more special because of the extraordinary effort and enthusiasm that went into their fundraising."

Toilet Twinning is a partnership between development charities Cord and Tearfund.

To learn more about Toilet Twinning  visit: www.toilettwinning.org

For more information on Loreto College, see:  www.loreto.ac.uk