JONO Hart is fundraising for WaterAid from the toilet. But not just any old toilet – he’s making his way across the country, visiting one outback dunny at a time.
A former arts and theatre critic, Jono has set himself the task of reviewing all the loos he uses while travelling across Australia. Each review is accompanied by what Jono describes as a ‘shelfie’. “It combines the slang word ‘selfie’ and the slang word for ‘poo’,” he explained.
“A lot of my friends think it’s a crap idea,” Jono admits. “And of course, they’re right.”
Jono is currently three months and over 25 shelfies into his six month toilet tour, which has so far taken him from Adelaide through to the centre of Australia, Darwin, and Queensland. Alongside his family of six, he will eventually head back to Adelaide along the east coast.
Through this journey, Jono’s goal is to raise funds for WaterAid, taking inspiration from other cross-country fundraising adventures he’s noticed. “I’ve seen people walk, ride and even unicycle across the country for charity. I just thought, ‘well that’s too hard, what skills do I have?’ and the concept was born,” Jono said.
Funds raised on Jono’s Shelfie For Charity Page will help WaterAid improve access to clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene. There are still 2.4 billion people worldwide who don’t have access to decent toilets, while 289,000 children under five die each year due to diarrhoeal diseases caused by dirty water and poor sanitation.
Although his fundraising idea may seem a little comical, Jono hopes he can raise money for WaterAid’s work, while bringing more attention to this global crisis.
“With the rise of Facebook and Instagram, publicising our lives and making them look consistently glamorous has become the norm. I think highlighting the crappier side of life may just be the reality check we all need. Because of course everyone needs to number two, so why not promote that too?,” Jono said.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everybody shared a shelfie? Perhaps our ego-driven world would stop and think for a moment about the child who dies every 2 minutes from poor sanitation.”
You can follow Jono’s toilet selfies by liking Shelfie for Charity on Facebook, or drop off a donation at www.everydayhero.com.au/event/shelfieforcharity
If you’ve got an interesting fundraising idea for WaterAid, create a fundraising page at https://everydayhero.com.au/event/wateraidpersonalchallenge or get in touch with us at events@wateraid.org.au
Ryan Fritz
Ryan Fritz started The Advocate in 2014 to provide not-for-profits and charities another media platform to tell their worthwhile hard news stories and opinion pieces effortlessly. In 2020, Ryan formed a team of volunteer journalists to help spread even more high-quality stories from the third sector. He also has over 10 years experience as a media and communications professional for not-for-profits and charities and currently works at Redkite, a childhood cancer charity.
