Each year, on November 19th, the United Nations World Toilet Day is celebrated, raising awareness of all those who are living without access to safely managed sanitation. As the lead organisation in Scotland for the development of Changing Places toilets, PAMIS wanted to raise awareness of the need for these vital facilities on World Toilet Day. What better way than meeting with PAMIS families in Dollar, Clackmannanshire for a sensory story-telling event at The Hive premiering ‘A Loo for You, A Loo for Me’. 

Changing Places toilets are needed by over ¼ million disabled people in the UK, as well as their families and carers. It is hard to believe that so many people don’t have access to safe and sanitary toilet conditions right here, right now in 2023.

Pamis has its very own mobile Changing Places toilet, the ‘Pamiloo’, which came along with staff to The Hive to ensure that families attending would have their toileting needs met.  

With the PAMILOO safely parked outside, we started preparing for our film stars and their families to arrive. Karen Procek, who attended with her son Rory, said “Changing Places toilets mean that we can take Rory somewhere safe in the knowledge that if he needs the toilet, we won’t have to change him on the toilet floor or cut our time out short. Having the Pamiloo at the event in Dollar was fantastic and meant that we could enjoy the premiere of ‘A Loo for You, a Loo for Me’ with other families”. 

Families were welcomed in by David of F Sharp Music, who played his guitar as the children made their way along the red carpet, then entertained families within the hall while we waited for everyone to arrive. 

Our projector screen was set up in the main hall for the premiere and after helping themselves to snacks from our tables stacked with popcorn, crisps, mini packs of biscuits and cakes, families settled in to watch the film. 

We had already decided that we didn’t want to try and create a ‘perfectly scripted’ film, with no background noise and an unnatural environment for the children.  Instead, we wanted to convey the same feeling we had when sharing the story in the classrooms – the moments of humour, the moments of quiet, the children’s personalities and the wonderful relationships that could be seen between the children and between the teachers and the children.     

With a number of the children being non-verbal, the sense of the story is conveyed by their natural interactions with the stimuli – we may say the majority of the words, but the children convey the feeling – the most important part of any storytelling. 

After the film, we held our award ceremony during which the stars in attendance were presented with their own engraved Oscars, to much applause!  

 

Our Information and Inclusive Communities Director Fiona Souter thanked everyone for being involved on the day and for helping us to create a fun, educational and activity-filled online resource that schools and communities will be able use to learn about and raise awareness of Changing Places Toilets.   

Families were then encouraged to visit our ‘sensory stations’ where they could read the story and explore the corresponding sensory stimuli with their child or sibling. 

We enjoyed more music from David, with everyone playing along using wrist bells and egg shakers, then it was on to crafting – making our own Walk of Fame stars, which everyone enjoyed. 

We were delighted with how the day went and how the film was received and very much look forward to continuing to work together with Lochies School and EASN Alloa Academy in Clackmannanshire, both through the sharing of this story and by creating of more stories together in the future. 

We would love to say a huge thank you to all the pupils, teachers and families and thanks also to Clackmannanshire Council and Shared Care Scotland for funding.