Let’s Talk About This Shit!

If you didn’t know, Monday 19th November is World Toilet Day. According to the World Toilet Day information brochure, “This international day of action aims to break the taboo around toilets and to raise awareness of the daily struggle that a staggering 2.5 billion people face”. I figured it would be good to break the taboo with my children and really talk about this shit. I think the fact that they got to use the word “shit” several times helped to engage the kids with this particular learning topic (!) but nevertheless, I think they found it really eye opening. We watched several videos together, and talked about them. This one is a beautifully presented short film showing the construction of a tippy-tap – a low tech but ingenious solution used to enable hand washing in less developed countries:

The boys were also very taken with Jack Sim of the World Toilet Organization, giving a TED talk here:

We then made posters, stating what our reasons were for giving a shit:

I’m not sure the boys’ illustrations of steaming piles of poo were *strictly* necessary, mind you!

And afterwards, mama added her voice to the petition, which calls on all decision makers to: “to keep their promises to take action to end the sanitation and water crisis, and work towards providing safe sanitation, good hygiene and clean water for all.” You can sign the petition here.