Ruan Coetzee

Category: Compassion

Ruan AJ Coetzee, 34, from Port Elizabeth is the pioneer behind Güdsheet – South Africa’s first plastic-free toilet paper.

Through the sales of Güdsheet, the company gives back toilet paper to underprivileged schools and crèches in need. After learning that thousands of school children in South Africa, especially in the Eastern Cape, don't have access to toilets, or even toilet paper, he decided to register a company called Güdco (Pty) Ltd in 2015 with the aim of selling toilet paper to generate funds to help build toilets. He later established The Eastern Cape Water & Sanitation Development Trust in 2017 – the same year they started selling Güdsheet.

Ruan believes that sanitation, water security, environmental and social sustainability are everyone’s responsibility and that we can end this problem by means of consumer driven philanthropy.

Read more about Güdsheet here.