SOIL’s First Toilet Raffle Is a Huge Success!

“Leanne Francois!”

“Louis Isemona!”

“Belle Marie Michelle!”

These are amongst the winners of our first Toilet Raffle last Friday. Everyone who paid their bill on time for our household toilets was automatically entered – 97 families in total. Ten names were drawn and each winning household received one month of toilet service for free. People waited anxiously for the raffle, some coming with their payments at the last minute.

The idea for a raffle evolved from meetings between SOIL and KOSS, the alliance of neighborhood organizations that works in the Shada neighborhood where SOIL is providing many toilets. SOIL provides beneficiaries with an EcoSan toilet and then stops by twice a week to remove the buckets of waste and take them to our composting waste treatment facility. Toilet owners pay a $5 monthly fee for this service thus providing a working example of how sanitation can be sustainably provided by a for-profit social business rather than through traditional aid. In the long-term we believe this will create jobs and increase national access to sanitation while also generating an unending supply of rich, organic compost critical for agriculture and reforestation. In a country where few people have electricity or running water, the idea of a utility bill is a new concept. It is our hope that the monthly raffle will encourage families to keep on top of their payments.

There are currently over 500 families on our wait list who have requested EcoSan toilets, and we expect this exciting project to scale up quickly over the coming year. Stay tuned for more updates!

Roslyn Lagen, SOIL toilet renter, says “In Shada, we have SOIL who has brought us the EcoSan toilet so that we don’t get hit by the series of diseases, such as cholera… Since SOIL has brought these toilets into the community, cholera seems less prevalent. What I wish is for SOIL and the men and women of KOSS to continue with their good work with the population of Shada. I would like for all the other cities to be able to benefit from the same work that they are doing here. It’s an incredible project.”