world toilet day!

yesterday was world toilet day, no this isn't a joke as the day was set up to highlight the basic water and sanitation needs of many many people in our world.....please visit their web site for more info here.

water and sanitation is a huge problem facing thousands of people in our town of grabouw and whilst the municipality is doing some great work to provide the basics to the areas of waterworks (which is a squatter camp/informal settlement right next to the waterworks, but with only a few standpipes and toilet blocks to serve a large section of our community, slightly ironic!), rooidakke, zola and iraq, there is this real mind challenging issue with multi million pound homes, hotels and farms with 'western style' sanitation that we all take for granted, living side by side with families living in tin shacks sharing one toilet between 12 other families (at least)....

....yesterday i took a couple of photos showing some of the children that we work with standing outside their toilet block, along with a man collecting water from a single standpipe in rooidakke area of grabouw...

remember grabouw has a HIV infection rate of around 30%, along with a very high rate of TB, with that in mind the health and welfare of these people is paramount, with little access to clean water or toilets you can imagine the problems that this creates!