In December, two days before Christmas, families work hard in the rice fields around Mbinudita in East Sumba.
The rainy season is an opportunity for the villagers to work in the rice fields to plant rice, to feed their families. It’s hard to work with your feet in the water, snakes are present, and the risk of bites is high. Nevertheless, families will have to feed themselves during the dry season, which is why rice is essential here in East Sumba.
Photographer: Kawan Elthon, Fair Future Foundation – Kawan Baik Indonesia team.
In East Sumba, in the impoverished and ultra-rural areas of eastern Indonesia, rice sprouts are extremely expensive. In addition, the island’s drought makes rice cultivation very complicated. Indeed, it rains very little, just two to three months a year. The rest of the year, it doesn’t rain at all, and everything gets very dry. From then on, the families favour the cultivation of corn. The main problem is that pests have been destroying everything in their path for years. Corn is no exception, as it is the cereal most affected by pest attacks.
These photos were taken in December as part of our fieldwork to take care of sick people and to continue the construction of the water connections project in the whole region of this village of East Sumba.
