HOLY CRAP: Why's this guy stuck on a toilet?

SIMON Griffiths has spent the last 51 hours on the throne. Why? He's raising cash for the developing world by fighting the good fight on sanitation. And he's winning.

SIMON Griffiths has spent the last 51 hours on the throne.

Why?

He's raising cash for the developing world by fighting the good fight on sanitation. And he's winning.

Griffiths is a man on a mission which, like the Who Gives A Crap toilet paper he's selling (he'll split the profits 50-50 with WaterAid), is two-fold:

• Step #1: Raise $50,000 to fund the first production run of Good Goods' socially responsible bog roll; and
• Step #2: Get off the toilet, raise more money, and build toilets in places that really, really need them.

Griffiths might be crazy enough to sit on a toilet at his Melbourne-based Poo HQ until he's raised $50k, but he's no drifter.

This is a man who, with university degrees in engineering and economics, turned his back on a lucrative white-collar career to change the world for the better.

His passion to do something meaningful for sanitation has taken him nearly everywhere in the developing world. Needless to say, he knows a lot about toilets.

"It's borne out of using disgusting toilets myself and being concerned for my own personal hygiene. It's a much, much higher risk for people who live in those circumstances," he told news.com.au.

It's worth noting at this point that Griffiths has made himself available for interviews from the toilet. News.com.au had the pleasure of a "sit down" interview last night. Griffiths was still there until about 20 minutes ago, when he reached his target.

The Who Gives a Crap campaign has been the sexy hook on an unsexy topic - sanitation. It's not sexy, but it matters; around the world, 4000 children under the age of 5 die from diarrhoea-related diseases every day. Every single day.

Griffiths is on a mission to change that. Not by 2070, or 2080, as current estimates suggest would be the break-even point on world sanitation. No, he's cooked up a new way of raising money: "consumer-driven philanthropy"

"This whole concept moves astronomically far away from what the average Australian thinks about donating," he said.

"It's not about pulling on heart strings or giving something extra from your paycheck. It's about selling a product that's fairly priced, the quality is just as good, and the purchase of that product is motivated by want and not guilt.

"Who Gives A Crap is about taking an unsexy product and turning it into something that's incredibly fun.

"Toilet paper is all about pillows and puppies and babies. But we want to promote a product that's not traditional, yet it's soft, it's great and it works.

"We're doing something really energising and enjoyable."

Simon Griffiths - Who Gives A Crap

You certainly need a lot of energy to sustain a two-day run on the throne without losing the plot.

Griffiths has been streaming the entire thing live, online. He asks me if I'm watching our conversation in real time. I'm not. That's just awkward.

"I've eaten all my meals on it. I would have slept on it but I haven't slept. I'm delirious from being live for 36 hours," he said.

"Fortunately I've got a wonderful girlfriend who's looking after me and cooking all my meals and an amazing support team who've been very generous."

That's funny. I've been told there's no such thing as an eat-dinner-on-the-dunny phase of a relationship.

So what's next? Will Griffiths take his $50k and get to work right away?

"The next step for us is to raise as much money was we possibly can," he said.

"I get off the toilet at $50,000 but we want to hit $100k or $200k. We can do variations on the product if we get more money.

“Then we place the first order, deliver all our pre-orders and generate online sales through our website. We hope to be on supermarket shelves towards the end of the year."

WaterAid will be the benefactor of Who Gives a Crap's profits. They will then dispatch the experts in toilet-building to help clean up the world one flush at a time.

That's something worth sitting down for.