Whatever happened to 'Going to Spend a Penny'?

On a recent trip to London on Soroptimist business, one of our members was shocked to be charged 30p to use the Ladies' at Euston Station. Still mildly outraged as she attended her meeting, she mentioned this and discovered ‘Toilet Twinning ‘ - a charity with a quirky way to solve a serious problem and save lives.

Nearly 40% of the world’s population don’t have somewhere safe to go to the toilet. Every 20 seconds a child dies from diarrhoeal diseases. Investing in sanitation is one of the most cost-effective forms of aid.

All the Garstang Soroptimist members now have a ‘pay as you go’ money box in their toilets reminding them and their visitors to drop their pennies in!

When our boxes are full we’ll tot up the pennies and choose where our toilet will be. For £60.00 you can twin with a latrine half way round the world in a country of your choice, for £240.00 you can twin with a school block. Your own smallest room becomes the proud owner of a personalised certificate, complete with a colour photo of the twin and GPS co-ordinates so that you can look up your twin on Google Maps!

More information and pictures on www.toilettwinning.org

Backpacks

Thank you to all those who donated backpacks for our project to help children in Malawi to get to school and enjoy the benefits of an education. A special thank you to the Mustard Seed café for continuing to act as our drop off point in Garstang.

A little background information

For those wishing to help with this project – we are sending filled backpacks to children aged between 3 and 13 year olds. We are currently short of:

BOYS - tee shirts, short trousers or shorts aged 3 – 13.

GIRLS - tops and skirt or shorts aged 7 – 13years.

Any flip flops or sandals aged 4 – 13yrs.

School Supplies needed

Rulers, pencil sharpeners, pencil cases, small towels (or larger ones we can make smaller). Malawi is a hot country so suitable children’s clothing would be our summer items.

Garstang Soroptimists work in many ways, locally, nationally and internationally to help improve the lives of women and girls. To see more of the bigger picture please browse this website or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

If you would like to find out more about your local club please ring 01995 606604.

Muriel Burnham-Airey - Membership Officer