Every wee bit helps
Pupils do their bit forToiletTwinning
They are on different continents and separated by thousands of miles - but a group of Calderwood Primary pupils have helped poverty-stricken countries in Africa and Asia.
Enterprising youngsters at the Rutherglen school were horrified when they learned about some of the effects of global poverty last year.
They decided to do what they could to help, and ended up working with the Toilet Twining charity to give people access to a toilet and to clean water.
Calderwood teacher Catriona Zabiega said: “We’ve all got leadership groups that we are involved in, and I’ve been involved with the Globetrotters group at the school.
“Last year we were looking at childrens’s rights across the world and the children found out a huge amount of people in the world have no access to clean water or sanitation.
“They wanted to do something to help, so we looked around and came across the Toilet Twinning charity.
“The children wanted to fundraise for that charity, and started thinking what they could do.
“At the Christmas concert they were having a bucket collection, and set up a stall where they were explaining everything about the charity.
“They then went to Create Bathrooms in Rutherglen and asked if they could donate a toilet to the school,which they were happy to help with as they are already been involved in the Toilet Twinning project.
“The children then had a competition trying to guess the name of the toilet, which was called Happy Lavvy.”
The school’s fundraising earned £489.19, a sum that will go towards a school block in Sierra Leone and four separate toilets in Pakistan, Cambodia, Afghanistan and Nepal .
The children now have certificates showing each of the blocks they have funded - except for the Afghanistan block, which they could not be shown because of the ongoing security issues in the country.
Catriona added: “The children have been so involved and so enthusiastic, whether it was with the fund raising or designing posters or anything to do with it.
“They like that there is a spread of countries that they are helping.
“It has also helped them to learn a bit more about the world , because they were really shocked to learn that many people don’t have access to clean water.
“It’s been a great project for them, it’s about making them global citizens and making them realise what else is going on in the world.’
Visit www.toilettwinning.org for more information on their work.