Tuesday, April 1, 2014

When Jack 'Mr Toilet' Sim visited an open defecation free village in India




Prof Jack Sim is the founder of World Toilet Organization(WTO). Not having a university degree did not stop him from starting his own business at age 24. At 40, having reached financial independence, he retired from his business and dedicated his remaining years towards humanitarian causes that can give real meaning to his life.

Prof Sim established the Restroom Association of Singapore(RAS) in 1998. He adopted the mission to raise the standards of public toilets in Singapore and around the world. Hence, with a dream to have a world body to unite various toilet associations, Prof Sim founded the World Toilet Organization (WTO) in 2001 and the World Toilet College (WTC) in 2005. 

Prof Sim and Dr Pathak in Harmithala village that is now open defecation free
With members from 56 countries, it serves as a platform for knowledge sharing, public education, pooling of resources, and development of sanitation initiatives.

WTO names 19 November as World Toilet Day, a day widely celebrated by the world annually to advocate the importance of good sanitation. In 2004, Prof Sim was awarded the Singapore Green Plan Award 2012 by Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA) for his contribution to Environment. He is also an Ashoka Global Fellow and Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

He was named by Asian Development Bank as a Water Champion and by Time Magazine as Hero of the Environment 2008.

In 2009, he joined the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy as a master student in Public Administration. He is now in the process of founding a new BOP HUB, a world trade center attracting entrepreneurs to the poverty market to serve the population of 4 billion people at the Base ofPyramid.














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