Darlington fundraising initiative flushed with success

Members of Darlington and District Soroptimist International club are flushed with success after their fundraising efforts helped provide toilets for some of the world’s poorest communities.

Dorothy Thomson chose the Toilet Twinning organisation as her adopted charity during her year as president last year and with the support of fellow members and local people a total of 31 new toilets were created in Nepal and Uganda.

Many of the toilets have been twinned with individuals and organisations that supported the fundraising efforts and now Dorothy and fellow club member Brenda Stokoe are delighted that Darlington Borough Council has agreed to have a twinned toilet.

Dorothy said: “We believe Darlington Borough Council may well be the first council in the country to do this and we’re thrilled.

“We take using the toilet for granted and most of us cannot imagine what it must be like not to have a clean, flushing loo available. But one in three people across the world – around 2.5 billion of them – do not have somewhere safe to go to the toilet.

“Being able to raise enough money for 31 toilets was amazing and we chose Nepal and Uganda as we have members with links to those two countries.”

Brenda added: “Soroptimist International is a worldwide organisation for women with around 80,000 club members in 130 countries working to educate, empower and enable opportunities for women and girls.

“Bad sanitation is one of the world’s biggest killers and by creating clean, safe toilets, along with clean water and information on how people can stay healthy we are helping improve the lives of girls, and boys, and helping communities break free from the poverty trap.”

Councillor Bill Dixon, Leader of Darlington Borough Council, accepted framed photographs of two toilets in Nepal that will go on display in the Dolphin Centre. He said:

“The efforts of local members of Soroptimist International in raising funds for such a worthwhile project are to be commended and we’re delighted to accept their invitation to be twinned with these toilets.

“We hope it will help raise the profile of such projects that make such a huge difference to the communities they work in.”

For more information about Soroptimist International log onto its website at www.soroptimistinternational.org and you can learn more about toilet twinning at www.toilettwinning.org.