The congregation of Holy Trinity Church, Malvern, recently enjoyed a service featuring 'Telephones and Toilets', led by Reader Eileen Tomlin. As a result, enough money was raised for seven local toilets to be 'twinned' with other toilets in more deprived areas of the world, providing safer sanitation.
Eileen reminded the congregation of the things we think are important and the things we think are essential to life. People escaping from a disaster would probably rescue first their family, and then their mobile phone as their most important and precious possession. It would hold their bank account, names and numbers of their family and friends, and prized photos, and for many people it is vital to their survival.
However, the absolute basic essentials of life are air, water, food and health.
Many people in less affluent countries, have no access to water for health and hygiene, and particularly they have no access to a proper toilet. The shocking statistics are that around a third of the world's population do not have access to a decent toilet, and more people have a mobile phone than a toilet. This makes women and girls especially vulnerable when they have to find somewhere in the open to relieve themselves, and at puberty girls often drop out of school because they have no privacy to use toilets and keep clean. It is embarrassing, unhygienic and causes the spread of disease.
Eileen's service talked about Toilet Twinning, a Tearfund charity which promotes the provision of toilets in deprived areas across the world. For only £60 a toilet can be built to provide simple sanitation for a family or community, which is humbling when we consider how much we may spend on fitting a new bathroom or a second toilet in a house. The small amount of £60 will make a huge difference to people in a less affluent country. Eileen showed a simple model toilet to take donations and following the service, the congregation of Holy Trinity Church donated enough for three toilets to be provided in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan, twinned with the toilets in the church and church hall. Each toilet entitles the church to receive a certificate, giving precise references so people can locate their Toilet Twins.
Following this initial service, the other church in the benefice, St James's West Malvern, asked for it to be repeated in their church. They also donated for toilet twinning, and a couple who were married there decided to ask, not for gifts, but for every guest to donate £1 to Toilet Twinning. Vergers who attended the Vergers' conference at West Malvern also contributed, resulting in enough to fund an additional four toilets. These are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (St James's Church and West Malvern Social Club), Tanzania (St James's School) and Uganda (The Brewers Arms).
