It takes a certain 4D-chessmaster’s long-view to see the value in dubbing oneself ”Mr. Toilet.”
But Jack Sim saw that the billions of people without access to a toilet and clean sanitation were suffering: from death and disease, from vulnerability to sexual violence, from getting an education, from literally having nowhere to go.
At first, he created the World Toilet Organization (WTO) in the hopes that the World Trade Organization (also WTO) would sue him, and bring attention to the plight of the bowl-less. But when they didn’t bite, he changed tact and made himself, well, the butt of the joke.
What started off as a silly and reputationally risky campaign has turned into World Toilet Day (Nov. 19th), an annual and official UN international observance. That helped propel Sim to the position of world’s number one and number two advocate for toilets.
Brooklyn Story Lab has spent a decade helping Jack and other partners — like Global Citizen, Reckitt, Water.org, and UNLEASH — make the case for the humble toilet. Learn what you can do here, and more information about BSL and its toilet partners here. And to celebrate World Toilet Day, watch our new video below.
