​Promoting a global culture of solidarity with the poor - in Haiti, Africa, and beyond. - for a more just and sustainable world   .  .  .  

​​Rich in Mercy Institute


Click HERE to download a .pdf article about St. Meinrad professor, Dr. Kimberly Baker, and her efforts to bring clean water and improved sanitation to Datcha village!

SOLIDARITY in West Africa:  Composting Latrines

The Datcha Latrine Project - Phase 2 will be followed by further collaboration to meet the infrastructure needs of the Datcha community.  Under consideration is the construction of a new elementary school building that will provide an environment more conducive to teaching and learning than the current structure.


To contribute to the Datcha project click on DONATE NOW and select Togo Latrine project!

Each latrine is a waterless, composting toilet connected to two septic tanks.  The two tanks allow for successive collection and composting of waste material over a minimum, two-year cycle, resulting in a manure safe for use in agricultural production.


At the community ceremony celebrating the completion of the school latrines, students expressed their deep appreciation and promised "to maintain the latrines so that they remain useful long into the future"!

Datcha is a small, rural village in Togo (West Africa) where only about one in ten households has "improved sanitation", so that 90% of households lack even a simple "pit latrine".   Building on the successful "Datcha Well Project" = a collaboration between long-time RIM supporter,  Kimberly Baker, PhD, local priest Fr. Odilon Kofi, SMA and Rich in Mercy - the community extended the collaboration to provide composting latrines, first for the local elementary school and then for the community at large.

With Dr. Baker raising the funds and Rich in Mercy providing continuing fiscal sponsorship, the Datcha Latrine Project - Phase 1 was launched in December 2018 and completed in January 2019!


Fr. Odilon blessed the completed, Phase 1 project in March 2019.  Almost immediately planning and fundraising for the Datcha Latrine Project - Phase 2 began.