Last Friday, SI Tenby social secretary Pam Maggs, accompanied by fellow Tenby Soroptimists, was delighted to receive her framed certificate for twinning a toilet at the Southcliff Hotel with a household latrine in an impoverished community.

Soroptimists from across SI Wales South and throughout the UK are supporting the Toilet Twinning campaign run by the Tearfund charity

Toilet Twinning provides people in the poorest communities on the planet with a decent toilet, clean water and all the information they need to stay healthy.

It’s the key to helping whole communities break free of the poverty trap.

For just £60, it is possible to twin with a single household latrine in an impoverished community. £240 enables toilet twinning with a school block. The smallest room then becomes the proud owner of a personalised certificate, complete with a colour photo of its twin and details about its new owner.

The donations are used by Tearfund to provide clean water, basic sanitation, and hygiene education in Africa and Asia. This vital combination works together to prevent the spread of disease. Children are healthier, and able to go to school; parents are well enough to work their land and grow enough food to feed their family. In Africa, half of young girls who drop out of school do so because they need to collect water - often from many miles away - or because the school hasn’t got a basic toilet.

Tenby Soroptimists, as part of this year’s Programme Action initiative, hope to help flush away poverty by involving schools and local businesses in toilet twinning.

For more information about this important and worthwhile project, visit http://sigbi/tenby or www.toilettwinning.org