Some of the richest people in the world are being urged on social media to show that they “Give a crap” about clean water by WaterAid, the international charity that transforms “Millions of lives every year with clean water, safe toilets and hygiene education.” Top earners are being urged to donate (roughly) the amount of money they would typically earn in the average time it takes to use the toilet to WaterAid, helping them bring clean, safe sanitation to the 2.5 billion + people around the world who don't have access to it.
WaterAid – It's No Joke (Another campaign run by WaterAid for World Toilet Day)
The #GiveACrap campaign has been created by the London-based creative technology agency Rehabstudio, with this campaign marking the first in a series of “Hacks” from the agency, which will tackle a different topic the agency feels strongly about every week. #GiveACrap raises awareness and funds for WaterAid via the bespoke Give A Crap website, which lists some of the richest people in the world currently on Twitter, and lets users urge them to #GiveACrap via an embedded link. Names targeted for the campaign include Bill Gates ($249,435), and Mark Zuckerberg ($100,868), both of whom apparently earn more during their morning constitutional than most of us do in a year!
Top earners are being urged to donate (roughly) the amount of money they would typically earn in the average time it takes to use the toilet to WaterAid
Visitors are also urged to donate their own “Daily dumps,” via a calculator at the bottom of the page that estimates how much you will have made during your own visit to the porcelain throne. A handy donate button then allows you to donate that amount (no matter how measly) in a matter of clicks. It's an elegant, fun, humorous way in which to combat a very serious problem. The campaign also includes Forbes cover parodies featuring minted business kingpins such as Donald Trump.
World Toilet Day Facts
Tom Le Bree, Rehabstudio's strategy partner, said the idea for the campaign was born out of the agency's passion for the cause. He said “Open defecation, with the terrible problems it causes, was an obvious choice,” and that the solution (a working toilet) “Is easy to implement with the right financial support.” He adds that the “Speed and reach of Twitter makes it a powerful platform for campaigns like this, and almost the only place where celebrities and prominent entrepreneurs engage directly with their followers.” This is without even mentioning, of course, that many people (around 20% apparently) around the world use their time on the toilet to check social media, and the #GiveACrap campaign plays on that wonderfully.
Tom Le Bree, Rehabstudio's strategy partner, said the idea for the campaign was born out of the agency's passion for the cause
World Toilet Day (today, as a matter of fact), is a day designated by the United Nations to draw attention to the importance of sanitation in the third world, with one in three of the world's population currently unable to access safe, private toilets. According to Water Aid, this leads to 500,000 children dying every year from diarrhoea.
The implications are not just sanitary either, with poor sanitation in third world areas also leading to violent attacks on women, especially during the evening, when they are forced to leave their homes and venture to dark and dangerous locations in order to relieve themselves. The problem came to global attention earlier this year when two Indian girls, aged 14 and 16, walked 15 minutes from their homes to use the toilet at night. They never came home. Both girls were found hanging from the branches of a mango tree near their homes, their bodies raped and beaten almost beyond recognition. Louisa Gosling, programme manager, principles, at WaterAid, said: “One in three women around the world does not have access to decent toilets, and half a billion women and girls risk their safety by having to relieve themselves in the open. We need to do more to change this.” I couldn't agree more.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and struggling musician from Kidderminster in the UK. He will be doing his part by donating his daily dump to Water Aid this World Toilet Day, and urges everyone reading this to do the same.
