November 19, 2008
WaterAid America Unveils New Online Resource for Children, The Adventures of Super Toilet

Today, on World Toilet Day, WaterAid America unveiled a new online resource for children, The Adventures of Super Toilet , at a launch event at River Oaks Elementary School in Houston, Texas.

World Toilet Day calls attention to the 2.5 billion people in developing countries, nearly 40% of the world’s population, with no safe place to go to the toilet, along with the 900 million also lacking access to safe drinking water. Children are among the most severely affected by this crisis, with 1.8 million dying every year as a result of diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. This amounts to nearly 5,000 deaths each day—more than from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and measles combined.

The Adventures of Super Toilet is an online animation aimed at elementary school students, which helps children understand the importance of toilets, safe water supplies, and good hygiene in preventing the spread of deadly diarrheal diseases.

These serious messages are presented in a light-hearted, humorous way by the story's villain Vinny the Poo and the heroes, the Super Hygiene Team. The story guarantees lots of smiles for children, while teachers and parents can be assured that valuable lessons are being learned about how to stay safe from water-related diseases.

The Adventures of Super Toilet was developed for WaterAid America by Charlie Williams ("The Noise Guy"), author of the children's book about toilets, Flush, and performer of humorous, educational shows about toilet sounds.

“When we teach the importance of sanitary practices, why not make it fun? I incorporate everyday sounds into all my programs. The wonder of toilet flushes, for instance, is that they're like snowflakes....no two sound the same!” said Charlie Williams.

Second-graders at River Oaks Elementary School , where the launch event was held, have already raised over $10,000 for WaterAid programs in Africa in 2006 and 2007, and today announced their third annual fundraising drive to support WaterAid’s mission to provide access to safe water and sanitation for the world’s poorest people.

Patricia Dandonoli, President and CEO of WaterAid America commented:

“Children seem particularly concerned about the global crisis in drinking water and sanitation—River Oaks is one of a number of elementary schools and community groups of young people that support WaterAid America. It may be because even very young children know that safe water is essential for life and because the problem affects children so directly. But there’s also a passion in young children for fairness that motivates them to get involved. We hope The Adventures of Super Toilet serves to inform children about the importance of hygiene and safe sanitation in their own lives and inspires them to take action to help children around the world living without these basic human needs.”

Watch The Adventures of Super Toilet .

About WaterAid
WaterAid is the world's leading independent non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to working with people in the world's poorest countries to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education. Founded in 1981, we operate throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific region and have helped more than 12 million people gain access to safe water through low-cost, sustainable projects that can be locally managed and maintained. With a goal of assisting one million people to gain access to safe water and three million people to gain sanitation this fiscal year, it has earned a worldwide reputation for its effectiveness and leadership and garnered numerous national and international awards, including the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize.  Find out more about what we do.

About Charlie Williams
Charlie Williams is "The Noise Guy", a vocal sound impressionist who can imitate the sound of planes, trains, automobiles and much, much more! This talented performer is also a kids' comedian, author, illustrator and onomatopoet.

Charlie Williams resides near Seattle, Washington. He's worked as a DJ, a cartoonist, a children's librarian and a dishwasher. A funny dishwasher. He is the author and illustrator of Flush! An Ode to Toilets, a fun picture book about the sounds of a variety of toilets. The comic illustrations and rhyming text was published by Sound Safari Theater, a company that still believes laughter is the best medicine.

Williams has just released his newest CD, Sugar Frosted Noisy Tales - Naturally sweetened kids stories! Ingredients include crazy kid comedy, parody, imagination, silliness and it's also a little goofy. For more information and laughs, visit www.noiseguy.com.