OUR VISION:

Our vision is to improve the quality of human life and to ensure dignity through the provision of adequate sanitation solutions to all.

OUR MISSION:

Our mission is to ensure the health and dignity of all South Africans and Africans and to protect our natural resources through the provision of environmentally friendly toilets and sustainable sanitation practices.

SATO aims to:

1. Bridge the Knowledge Divide i.e. introduce public discussion forums that will educate and inform all South Africans as to the various issues of sanitation, health and hygiene and in doing so rid society of the negative aspects of the topic.
2. Highlight the plight of the affected people of South Africa – We are all affected.
3. Mobilise corporate South Africa to adopt an Alternative Community Led Total Sanitation Action Plan in an attempt to address the sanitation crises in South Africa.
4. Secure Corporate Social Investment for the implementation of adequate and acceptable sanitation and health care in the affected areas; and

FACT SHEET…

1. Open defecation (not using a toilet), contributes to 88% of the deaths caused by diarrhoeal diseases i.e. 1.5 million in children under the age of 5 years old die annually. Infestation of intestinal worms caused by open defecation affects predominantly school aged children, resulting in reduced physical growth, impaired cognitive functions and as intensity of the infestation increases, academic performance and school attendance declines subsequently.
2. Diarrhea trails only pneumonia as the biggest killer of small children in the world- greater than tuberculosis, Aids or malaria in numbers equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every hour of every day.
3. Diarrhea leads to malnutrition amongst children; children are dropping out of schools, which leads to millions lost in worker-hour production capability due to workers staying at home. (434 million working hours in the World, lost in 2007)
4. Lack of adequate sanitation has a severe negative impact on our environment. Our water resources are polluted which in turn impacts on the quality of our drinking water etc.