Hypo Homecare Products limited a division of Tolaram Africa Enterprises has reaffirmed its commitment to the Hypo Toilet Rescue Volunteer (TRV) program as it donated and commissioned eight units of rescued toilets at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) secretariat in Surulere for the benefit of corps members and management staff of the corps.
The Hypo TRV initiative which was launched at the NYSC Orientation Camp, Ipaja, in March is designed to encourage youths to further get involved and support community development as they register and identify public toilet facilities e.g school, healthcare or community facility which require urgent interventions such as refurbishment, quick repairs, facelift etc.
Thereafter the volunteers will submit a documented case to the company stating how and all that will be required to bring the public facility to a perfect condition. Currently more than 2,000 corps members have registered as volunteers and are working hard to effect change in schools that lack decent toilet facilities.
This project was recorded to be the first to be undertaken this year as the brand through this initiative decided to transform the NYSC secretariat restroom to maintain sanitation and hygiene.
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Chidera Anele, brand Manager at Tolaram said the goal is to bring about a significant change using youths and working with the NYSC because it provides the leverage to reach communities, public schools, Primary Health Centers etc. and see how their toilets can be transformed.
“Before we begin to enter communities, we thought to start the transformation from within, hence the NYSC secretariat facilities rescue, we provided good plumbing system to enable uninterrupted water supply, replaced the water closets, carried out a complete facelift of the toilet environment to make it standard for use,” Anele said.
Megwa Edwin, Lagos state coordinator, NYSC commended Hypo for this initiative adding that this is something they have been hoping to achieve for a very long time.
“This is a project we all have been looking out for over one and half years trying to seek help from corporate organizations which continuously proved abortive, then, Hypo came in unsolicited to bequeath us with these unique gifts,” he said.
According to WaterAid, as at 2016 Nigeria was the worst country in Africa and the third worst globally for urban sanitation with more than 58 million urban dwellers (67.2 percent of the population) living without access to a safe, private toilet.
Hypo says this initiative is part of its contributory efforts to reduce the problem of open defecation while increasing access to safe and private toilets
