We in the UK love a bit of toilet humour – but for billions of people, the lack of a proper toilet is no laughing matter. Even a basic loo can save lives, protecting families from disease, keeping them safe and restoring their dignity.

Seren Boyd from Toilet Twinning shares how BB Companies can ‘twin’ their toilets and help families overseas take a big first step out of poverty.

What is Toilet Twinning?

Toilet Twinning is a quirky fundraising campaign which raises funds for lifesaving loos, clean water and hygiene education in some of the world’s poorest communities. The scheme, which is part of the Christian organisation Tearfund, invites you to twin your loo at home, work, Church or venue with a latrine overseas and so help a family living in poverty have a proper toilet for the first time. For a £60 donation, you can twin with a household toilet and receive a certificate with a photo of your twin; for £240, you can twin a school toilet block.

A child under five dies of disease linked to dirty water and poor sanitation every two minutes.

Why do toilets matter?

Toilet Twinning is a fun campaign that addresses a serious problem: one in three people worldwide – 2.3 billion people – still don’t have access to a safe toilet. This leaves families vulnerable to sickness and disease so parents have less time to earn money or farm. Without toilets, women and girls are at risk of attack, especially if their culture dictates that they have to wait until dark to venture into the bush. If there are no toilets at school, girls miss class during their periods – up to a week each month – or drop out of school altogether.

844 million people don’t have clean water close to home.

What work does Toilet Twinning fund?

We work through local partners who make sure communities have access to clean water and teach people why proper sanitation and good hygiene are so important. We focus on enabling and equipping people to find their own solutions to their problems. So, importantly, while our partners provide training and materials to construct toilets, the families themselves build their own latrines. This means they will keep on using it.

Since Toilet Twinning began in 2010, it has twinned more than 107,000 toilets and funded projects in 30 countries.