Northampton church's youngest members join roll of honour after fundraising for toilets

The children and young members of St Giles Church in the town centre have raised over £900 to provide four blocks of toilets, three for schools in Chad, Pakistan and Sierra Leone and one in a displacement camp for refugees in the Central African Republic.

During the season of Advent the church’s children and young people were challenged to collect coins in Smartie tubes to twin the toilets in their church and church centre with new toilets in less-developed countries.

St Giles Children and Families Worker, Jo Smith, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the response and the generosity of the children and the congregation of St Giles Church.”

“The children returned their tubes during the morning service in January and adult congregation members were asked if they would also like to add their contribution.

“When the collection was counted an incredible £960 had been raised.”

The toilets will be built by the Toilet Twinning charity which provides safe and hygienic facilities for communities without them.

Donors receive certificates with a GPS position included to show where the money donated has been used.

The initiative will help some of the estimated 2.5 billion people in the world without a safe, private, hygienic toilet facility to use.