The saying goes ‘you learn something new every day’ and it’s also true that this can happen at the strangest time and in the weirdest place. An example would in the Gents at a 50th birthday party late one Saturday night! I am sure all possibilities spring to mind but no it was perfectly innocent.
On a strategically placed plaque was a picture of a wooden shack, but it was the brief explanation below that blew my mind. 2.4 billion (yes billion) people do not have somewhere safe clean and hygienic to go to the loo, that’s one third of the world’s population! Another saying is that there are certain constants in life; birth, death and taxes, at a more basic level that should probably say eating and going to the loo. We have seen great advances in our ability to be able to provide food to all and fortunately we haven’t the sort of famines that plagued the world 20 or 30year ago, recently. But the reality of this lack of proper sanitation is that every minute 3 under 5s die as a direct result.
The plaque on the wall was a certificate to say that a cub pack who shared the hall where the party was being held twinned their loo with one in Uganda through an organisation called ToiletTwinning.org (http://www.toilettwinning.org ), the twinning process pays for a new toilet to be built somewhere it is desperately needed. I know there are many other organisations doing similar work but it struck me as a great way make a difference.