Cumbria holiday parks’ loo-aid bid is flushed with success

Toilets at a Cumbria holiday parks group are being twinned with loos overseas in a bid to help desperately poor communities fight ill health.

Holgates holiday parks in south Cumbria has started pairing off its toilets with latrines across the world which are being built with sponsorship provided by the business.

The toilets will help bring improved hygiene and safety to people in mainly African villages who previously had no access to clean water and proper facilities.

Three loos have already been twinned via an international aid body, and more are in prospect as new toilets are built this winter at the group’s flagship Silverdale Holiday Park.

It hopes that the new amenity block will even trump the high standards of the building it replaces, and which won a top platinum prize in the Loo of the Year awards.

But even before the block opens next spring, its loos will join others in the business which are twinned with new toilets benefitting impoverished villagers.

The relief programme with which Holgates is partnering works in countries such as Afghanistan, Congo, Honduras, Cambodia, Malawi, and Liberia.

Framed photographs of the actual toilets with which the group’s loos are twinned are displayed at the parks, and business owner Michael Holgate hopes this may inspire a chain reaction:

“Some customers have already asked if it’s possible to twin their smallest room at home with a loo overseas, and we’re delighted to tell them how it’s possible,” said Michael.

“The idea of helping to bring proper toilet facilities and fresh water to extremely poor people in this way has captured many people’s imaginations.

“Bad sanitation is one of the world’s biggest killers, and more than three billion people across the globe don’t have a safe place to go to the toilet.

“It hits children, the elderly, and sick people the hardest – and there are special risks for women in Africa who are at risk of assault or being bitten by snakes in the open.

“We’re very proud to be able to add this cause to the various charities we support,” added Michael.

Family-owned Holgates last year marked its sixtieth anniversary, and comprises six top-rated holiday parks providing holiday home sales and rentals, glamping, and touring facilities.

There is more information about the group at www.holgates.co.uk