That's because kids are less hung up on these issues than adults, says Thilo Panzerbieter, the executive director of the German Toilet Organisation (GTO) and one of several people quoted. He said the GTO's work in Zambia, Lesotho and the Philippines had revealed a universally applicable strategy: “Let’s empower the children, because they don’t have that taboo.” Read the full article here.
How do you break down cultural barriers around toilets? Get children talking, according to this excellent article in The Guardian newspaper. Teaching children to talk about hygiene openly is the first step to tackling the harmful prejudices of their parents.
That's because kids are less hung up on these issues than adults, says Thilo Panzerbieter, the executive director of the German Toilet Organisation (GTO) and one of several people quoted. He said the GTO's work in Zambia, Lesotho and the Philippines had revealed a universally applicable strategy: “Let’s empower the children, because they don’t have that taboo.” Read the full article here. We loved this story from UNICEF Philippines about how a musical comedy about a fly and a dump of human poo is using humour to get messages about safe sanitation and good hygiene across to children in the Philippines. As 12-year-old Ronel Gungob told UNICEF Philippines, "we laughed so hard at the actor who tripped on a pretend pile of faeces." When he got home, Ronel couldn't stop talking about the play to his family. This brilliant, creative project has been underway since June 2014 in the province of Masbate and is aimed at encouraging parents and community leaders to improve basic sanitation. Read the full story here. One in three people around the world lack safe sanitation. Of the world's seven billion people, 2.4 billion do not use a basic toilet and almost 1 billion still defecate in the open. This is why the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 designated 19 November as World Toilet Day and UN Water is calling on people to help raise awareness of the issue with the hashtag #wecantwait. Without good sanitation, people are at risk of disease and malnutrition. Women and girls suffer disproportionate impacts due to the lack of toilets at schools, the home or the workplace. We can’t wait to change this situation. We must speak up and end the global sanitation crisis. It is time to end this deadly crisis and to ensure everyone, everywhere has access to a clean, safe toilet. We were really delighted to see this article published by the US newspaper, National Catholic Reporter, on faith groups coming together in Kenya to raise the alarm for environmental protection. Because so many of our friends were featured in the article. We helped this annual interfaith environmental gathering get off the ground when we were part of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation – and it was out of that work that Faith in Water was born. It was great to see faith groups inspiring each other on the environment. As Mary Francis Wangare, a Franciscan Sister who is director of the Office of Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Franciscan Africa, explained, the environment is a neutral subject. "Everyone knows we must take action, so it is the perfect rallying point for interfaith work. We are from all different faiths, but we want to show that if we work together, we can stop the radicalization of young people,” she told more than 600 participants at Catholic University in Nairobi on Oct. 9 as she opened the two-day conference. We were warned it could take months... Some people even suggested we should use professional agents to help us. But instead we read all the guidance several times and drafted our constitution with extreme care. And our hard work paid off. This week – far quicker than we'd expected – the UK's Charity Commission came back to us. They said we'd met all their conditions and are now officially registered as a charity. Hurray! We are all hugely excited and energised about moving on to the next step. We also launched Putting Clean Hands Together, our publication produced in collaboration with UNICEF, at the UNC Water and Health Conference. This publication is our first official Faith in Water publication and looks at how faiths and secular groups can work better together. It includes articles on the importance of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to children's health and education; tips on what faith groups can do to prioritise WASH in their schools; facts about faith groups and about WASH. It also looks at the significance of water, sanitation and hygiene in five major faiths – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism, and features case studies of faith action. You can download it from the Putting Clean Hands Together page. We are very pleased to announce that we officially launched Faith in Water as the newest NGO working in WASH at the Water and Health Conference hosted by the University of North Carolina in the US from October 26-30. The conference is the leading annual gathering of people and organisations working on water, sanitation, hygiene and health. It was a great place to introduce Faith in Water as it attracted 700 practitioners from around the world and was packed with stimulating and challenging presentations and discussions. Faith in Water has developed some posters featuring case studies of WASH initiatives in faith schools. The left hand poster features Ebukoola Primary School and the right hand one Gisire Academy, both in Kenya.
We'll be taking the A1 posters to our launch at the UNC Water and Health Conference in North Carolina next week. You can download them from our resources page. |
UpdatesRead the latest news of Faith in Water's activities as well as interesting stories on WASH around the world. Archives
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Main photograph above by IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute)
Faith in actionWe're naturally interested in stories of faith in action, particularly those that show the impact of working with faith groups. Our faith in action page has a collection of stories and links to explore further.
Prayer resourcesWe collect prayer and meditation resources on water and cleanliness for use by faith groups.
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