It's time to flush out poverty
Howard Lake | 13 February 2007 | Newswire
International development agency Christian Aid is launching a new fundraising pack in March 2007 for five to 16 year olds designed to help flush out poverty.
Flush, aimed at schools and youth groups, is about toilets and water. There are around one billion people in the world who do not have access to clean water. Every year 6,000 children die of diseases like typhoid and cholera and from the diarrhoea such infections cause – all as a result of dirty water and inadequate toilet and washing facilities.
The fundraising initiative includes a competition for the ‘best-dressed school loos’ in the land in the Toilet Transformation Challenge, fun fundraising ideas, a poster to chart progress, fascinating water facts and examples of children’s water stories from across the world.
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Using the toilet is part of our everyday lives and something we all take for granted. But for the 85 out of every 100 people in the world who don’t have running water at home, life is a lot different. That is why Christian Aid is encouraging kids to celebrate their toilets and raise money for its overseas health and sanitation programmes.
Schools and youth groups are being asked to decorate their toilets for a day and charge everyone for the privilege of using them. The more funny and creative the ideas, the more people will want to visit them!
‘We want to encourage kids to spend some pennies when they need to spend a penny,’ said Nicola Inson, schools programme manager at Christian Aid. ‘It all adds up. For example if 300 people use the toilet 3 times a day at a charge of 20p a go, that’s £180 in one day. £180 could pay for pumps, pipes and tap stands to bring fresh water to four villages in Nicaragua.’
Rahna Barowi is 10 and lives in Afghanistan. Collecting water in her village used to be difficult and time-consuming – before Christian Aid helped to build water pipes to supply her community.
Rahna is now delighted to have a fresh water supply near her home which means she has clean water to drink and wash with, reducing the number of times she and her brothers and sisters fall ill.
Extra resources will be available online for teachers and youth leaders at www.christianaid.org.uk/learn which is being re-launched on 12 March 2007. The re-worked site will offer teachers and youth workers new fundraising ideas and activities throughout the year as well as the opportunity to order DVDs and CD-Roms as part of the government’s new e-learning scheme. Kids can log on to www.globalgang.org
To order a free copy of the Flush fundraising pack email or****@ch***********.org or call 08700 787 788 quoting F1331 for an English version or F1331W for a pack in Welsh.
For further press information contact Karen Hedges on 020 7523 2404 or email kh*****@ch***********.org
Notes to editors
Stats sourced from www.wateraid.org.uk and www.aquaid.co.uk
Christian Aid is an international development agency working in 50 countries with people of all religions and none.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.