In rural Indonesia, sexually transmitted infections spread silently. No testing, no education, no access to care. Untreated infections lead to infertility, neonatal complications, and chronic disease. Prevention, early diagnosis, and community training are not optional. They are urgent.

Health systems cannot function without roads, water, electricity, and basic logistics. In rural Indonesia, care often stops where infrastructure ends. No access means no diagnosis, no treatment, no survival. Building health starts long before the patient arrives.

Malnutrition weakens the immune system and turns simple infections into life-threatening conditions. In rural Indonesia, children face this cycle daily. Without nutrition, prevention fails. Without treatment, recovery stalls. Food and medical care must go together.

In rural medicine, delay is often the difference between life and death. Distance, lack of transport, and late diagnosis turn treatable conditions into emergencies. Every hour matters. Strengthening early care and access is essential to reducing preventable deaths.

Rubella continues to circulate in rural Indonesia, often unnoticed. Without vaccination and early detection, it leads to severe congenital complications and lifelong disability. Prevention exists. What is missing is access, awareness, and consistent public health action.

Plastic waste is not just pollution. It contaminates water, food, and air, directly impacting human health. In Indonesia, exposure is constant and cumulative. Without waste management and prevention, this silent crisis fuels disease across entire communities every day.

Unsafe water remains one of the leading causes of childhood illness in rural Indonesia. Diarrhea, infections, and dehydration are not accidents. They result from a lack of infrastructure, clean water access, and prevention. These diseases are avoidable with simple, proven solutions.

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Water, Nutrition & Survival

Clean water is the foundation of everything. Without it, there can be no nutrition, no sustainable health. By ensuring access to water, we protect children, prevent disease, and enable communities to survive, grow, and thrive over the long term.

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New project presentation: 12 ferrocement water reservoirs in East Sumba

08.03.2026 | Today we are releasing the new presentation of our Sumba Water Connections project. It describes the construction of twelve ferrocement reservoirs designed to bring safe water to extremely dry villages where women and girls still walk long distances to collect water. We invite you to read the document.

Final report released for the 115 m³ Laindatang water reservoir

04.03.2026 | The final report on the construction of the 115 m³ water reservoir in Laindatang, East Sumba, is now available. This document presents the full technical process, construction phases, financial transparency and community impact of the project, completed after three years of work in the field.

Sumba HQ Concept V2 released for our 2026 socio medical center

20.02.2026 | The land in East Sumba is secured. We now share Version 2 of the initial concept for our future socio medical base near Waingapu. Plans are evolving, but the objective is clear: build a permanent, functional HQ in 2026, with your support.

Water, Nutrition & Survival

The Water, Nutrition & Survival category addresses core public health determinants that directly affect morbidity and mortality in ultra-rural settings. Articles document how limited access to safe water, adequate nutrition, and basic sanitation increases the risk of waterborne disease, malnutrition, dehydration, and infection. Interventions follow WHO public health standards, combining water infrastructure, food support, hygiene promotion, and community education. This category highlights field-based actions that stabilize health, prevent avoidable disease, and support survival where resources and healthcare access remain critically limited.

Fighting Malnutrition Through Food and Nutrition Programs

Content type Post Page Gallery

Access to clean water is vital for human health

by Alex | May 8, 2023 | Empowerment, Laindatang Water Connections, Picture of the day

This "Picture of the Day" shows young children's struggles in East Sumba. The jerry cans are heavy and sometimes more prominent than the children themselves. With limited access to drinking water sources, the kids who live there (here in these images in the villages of Kabanda, Mahu, Laindatang, and Tana Mbanas) are forced to walk long distances to fetch water. Water in rivers or wells which are also contaminated. It takes up a lot of their time and puts them at risk of injury or illness by carrying heavy loads of water. Lack of access to clean water also contributes to poor hygiene and sanitation practices, further compounding the health problems of those East Sumba communities where Kawan Baik and Fair Future work so hard. Together, we are taking action to improve access to clean water sources, in these areas where no roads lead, to ensure the health and well-being of young children and their families. In addition to the physical hardship of fetching water, and as explained in this post, children in rural areas of East Sumba are often deprived of education and other opportunities because of this task. It is widespread (like in this picture of the day) that they miss school or other activities to help collect water, which affects their academic progress and social development.

Here people mainly only have access to contaminated water. This leads to many diseases, including gastrointestinal infections, skin diseases, parasitic diseases and other infectious diseases such as Malaria, Dengue Fever, Cholera, typhoid fever, hepatitis A or diarrhoea. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to illnesses caused by contaminated water, a significant cause of infant mortality here.

In conclusion, ensuring access to clean water through a program like the #waterconnections project is our top priority that cannot be overlooked. Access to clean water is essential to sustaining life and maintaining good health for everyone here. Water plays a vital role in preventing the spread of the diseases mentioned above, ensuring people can lead healthier lives. Whether for drinking, cooking or cleaning, clean water is essential for everyday life. Without access, communities in the ultra-rural areas of East Sumba suffer from a lack of sanitation and hygiene, leading to various health problems.

Therefore, we must do everything we can to ensure that clean water is available to everyone who needs it.

Reduce health risks with clean water for families

by Alex | May 1, 2023 | Picture of the day, Preventive Health, Water Connections

In this "Picture of the Day" shows you what children do several times a day: Fetch water for the family with some 5-litre jerrycans. Most of the time, the young girls take care of this. Here in this photo, it is a young child of ten years. There are no daughters in the family. He does this job instead of going to school. He and his family have only two litres or less of water a day for eating, drinking, bathing and everything else.

Unfortunately, like here in Tana Mbanas (Sumba Tenggah), there is still a vast majority of villages in Sumba that do not have access to clean drinking water. In these villages, the inhabitants often depend on surface water sources such as rivers, lakes or ponds, which bacteria, viruses, chemicals or by animals and insects mostly contaminate.

The lack of clean water has severe consequences for the health of the inhabitants. Waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid, hepatitis A, Malaria and Dengue fever, are common where access to clean water and toilets is limited or absent. These diseases can be severe and even fatal, especially in children, pregnant women and the elderly.

To help villages without clean water in Sumba, Fair Future and Kawan Baik are implementing effective measures to improve access to clean and healthy water. Our solutions include drilling deep wells with our equipment, construction of water treatment plants, storage tanks, rainwater harvesting and storage, and installation of water management systems—irrigation and construction of healthy sanitation facilities.

We are still seeking funding and technical resources to set up sustainable, safe and clean water infrastructure in this region, one of the world's poorest and most dry.

Alexandre Wettstein from the Foundation’s Medico-Social Camp in East Sumba, Rumah Kambera, Lambanapu, on Mai 1st, 2023.

Giving life to the village of Laindatang

by Alex | Apr 12, 2023 | Food Shortages, Laindatang Water Connections, Water shortages, Water, Nutrition & Survival

The current priority in this village is to give them clean, safe water and sanitation. Here, families must walk for miles, sometimes more than 10 hours, to bring a few litres of clean water home. People here have less than 2 litres per day and a person to drink, eat, go to the toilets, and wash. So you have to make sacrifices. Malaria is taking its toll here, just like infectious diseases that considerably weaken families' health, especially those of children under five. This is a critical situation for us on a health level. Still, on a social level, Fair Future and Kawan Baik, in collaboration with the local authorities, wish to start a simple Water Connections project in this village as soon as possible.

What does a kitchen look like without food or water

by Alex | Apr 1, 2023 | Food Shortages, Laindatang Water Connections, Picture of the day, Water Connections, Water, Nutrition & Survival

This new "Picture of the Day" shows you what the kitchen of an East Sumba family is like. A kitchen like there are tens of thousands here. One of the elements we always see is the presence of five-litre jerry cans. They are the ones that serve as a container for the water that the girls and women have to fetch from afar. We also notice the absence of food, including no rice, only corn. Rice is expensive, and nobody can buy it here in Laindatang, East Sumba: No electricity, running water, and sink.

Just a hearth that will be used once a day only to prepare corn porridge mixed with vegetables and roots that the women have been looking for in the forest. Salt and red peppers. That will be all for the day and the whole family, including dogs and cats.

Families here live without clean or potable water, yet access to potable water is crucial for survival and maintaining good health. Without clean water, families in the areas where Fair Future and Kawan Baik work are forced to drink contaminated water, which leads to waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery.

This has an immense impact on daily life and livelihoods. Women and children must walk long distances to fetch water, which takes up much time and interferes with other activities such as work or education.

What do the sanitary facilities we build look like?

by Alex | Mar 30, 2023 | Picture of the day, Project Update, Water Connections

This new "Picture of the Day" shows you an example of construction that we carry out in the poorest villages of Indonesia and Asia. Here the families before did not have access to clean water and toilets. Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations have been changing this for years, and noticeable changes are being seen.

Access to drinking water and toilets is a fundamental human right. Still, unfortunately, in the regions where we are, nearly 90% of families in ultra-rural areas do not have access to these necessities. Here are some steps that can be taken to provide access to clean water and toilets in the regions that do not have access:

The first step is to identify the areas most needing these facilities. Fair Future and Kawan Baik proceed through research, surveys, and working with our local partners and authorities. Once regions that do not have access to clean water and toilets have been identified, we develop plans to provide these services. This takes into account the specific needs of each community. To do this, we have several ways to provide access to clean water, such as drilling deep wells, installing water filtration systems and collecting rainwater. The method used will depend on the specific needs of the community.

Access to toilets is also essential to reduce the rate of infectious diseases such as Cholera, Dengue, hepatitis A, and Malaria. In this photo, two sanitary facilities have been built using the Ferro-Cement method, with a tank for collecting dirty water and clean water for watering.

Fair Future also considers it essential to educate the community on the importance of hygiene and sanitation practices to prevent the spread of disease. We do this through the #waterconnections and #kawansehat and #primarymedicalcare programs.

One of our missions is also to monitor and maintain these new facilities. This requires the training of local community members who will carry out essential maintenance and repairs.

Malnutrition is taking its toll here where we are

by Alex | Mar 16, 2023 | Food Shortages, Picture of the day, Water, Nutrition & Survival

This "Picture of the Day" shows children in East Sumba, where we are at work, as I post this Photo of the Day. Fair Future and Kawan Baik teams, as part of the #kawansehat #primarymedicalcare and #waterconnections projects, cook for children in the most rural and poor areas. In this image, some are drinking strawberry milk for the first time. They had never seen a straw before, and I remember all the kids asking us how to drink that kind of drink. We had to show them and help them plant the straw in the milk carton.

Malnutrition is an endemic problem here in all the rural villages of East Sumba. It is also the region with the highest rate of malnourished children in Indonesia. Here, clean water is absent from the houses, and the consumption of unclean water generates health problems and serious illnesses. And to cook, drink, and wash, you need water. And in order not to get sick, you also need water. Food production cannot occur without water, and families do not have enough income to buy food, rice and vegetables. On average, they live with less than two litres of water per person per day for everything: cooking, eating, drinking, drinking, bathing, going to the toilet and doing laundry. Have you ever tried?

Most children here are underweight and malnourished because they cannot eat enough. Meal frequency is one meal per day. Young children may be able to eat twice if all goes well. The menu will consist of rice and corn because more than rice alone is needed. In East Sumba, a kilo of rice costs three times more than in Java or Bali. Only a little salt and peppers accompany the meal to give flavour and taste.

We have a toilet for the first time in our life!

by Alex | Mar 15, 2023 | Picture of the day, Water Connections

This "Picture of the Day" shows you an adorable couple from East Sumba, the village of #mbinudita -who are not used to being photographed-. Beneficiaries of the #waterconnections program who have had access to toilets at home for a few hours. But not only toilets: They can shower there, wash their clothes, and create a vegetable garden. And most importantly, eat and drink healthily. No more getting sick from the water. No more spending hours on the paths to fetch a few litres of dirty water.

East Sumba is one of the regions in the world with the highest rate of malnourished children. Infant mortality due to lack of clean water and toilets is staggering. Our medical teams still spend much of their time giving medical treatment and medicine to people and children who don't have clean water to swallow. Or how to treat a child who suffers from diarrhoea by giving him tablets that he will have to drink with inedible water, the source of his illness? Say to cook the water? It has no wood; frankly, when you're thirsty, you drink what's there.

But here, things have changed dramatically. Over thirty healthy sanitation facilities and over forty clean water tanks have been built for these almost 280 #rebuildmbinudita families. Every week we see new vegetable gardens created, many more children going to school, including young girls, and more mothers looking after their families instead of walking for hours to fetch five litres of dirty water.

When only dirty water remains to try to survive

by Alex | Mar 10, 2023 | Picture of the day, Water shortages

This "Picture of the Day" shows some children looking slightly disappointed at the edge of the well, which contains no water. There are only 30 to 50 centimetres of water left. This water is black and dirty, and it will surely make them sick. But they will bring some back because, as the villagers often tell me: "When you're thirsty, you don't have time to boil water or find clean water. You're thirsty, so you drink this that there is …".

Having clean water heals people, improves families' health and reduces disease. Water is the best medicine in the world.

Here in Laindatang, the community, its inhabitants, and the families have always maximized the use of rainwater for cooking, eating, and drinking. Washing or doing laundry is done simultaneously: People wash their bodies with detergents directly at the water source. Linked to the lack of water, the villagers wash only once a month – with the related health consequences – or at best, every two weeks.

It should be noted that these families have never had sanitary facilities. Peeing and pooping are done behind a tree with all the health issues. For menstruating women, the lack of water makes this time very complicated.

A sanitary emergency: We invite you to support the urgent program in the village of Laindatang, East Sumba, which consists of giving water as quickly as possible via a deep borehole, two healthy sanitary installations and two/three water tanks 6,750-litres of water to these several hundred people. Click on the button bellow.

Kids here have to fetch water from the age of five!

by Alex | Mar 8, 2023 | Child Health, Laindatang Water Connections, Picture of the day

This "Picture of the Day" shows you a five-year-old girl who, twice a day, descends the hill, steep and stony, without shoes to fetch water. She runs to go to the source, 500m away. Sometimes she falls, hurts herself, and comes back up with difficulty carrying a 5-litre jerrycan of not-so-clean water, which she and her friends have been looking for at the source.

In this village, like in many others here, people can only wash once a month, are all sick and don't have enough to eat and drink. Without access to this clean water, families – especially children – suffer from severe malnutrition, chronic respiratory and joint diseases and other illnesses linked to the consumption of dirty water and the absence of sanitation facilities. The fight against malaria, dengue fever and infectious diarrhoea also requires access to clean water and healthy water tanks. And to water that does not stagnate but circulates between the installations.

As we have already said, East Sumba is the poorest province in Southeast Asia, the region with the highest child malnutrition and associated mortality. Fait Future, therefore, wishes to act for these hundreds of people and give them access to clean and healthy water for their health.

East Sumba, a village without clean water!

by Alex | Mar 7, 2023 | Laindatang Water Connections, Picture of the day, Water Connections

This "Picture of the Day" shows you a thrilled woman because when we last visited the "Water Connections – Laindatang" Project site, we brought – thanks to the Truck of Life – several jerry cans filled with drinking water, or about one hundred litres. So everyone is scrambling to get a little. We shared this water with the villagers.

The Water Connections project, Laindatang Site, is one for which we also seek help. Laindatang is a village without drinking water. People only wash once a month, are sick and don't have enough to eat and drink. All children are underweight, and so are adults. We must act for these hundreds of people and give them access to drinking water. The project consists of drilling a deep borehole, building healthy sanitary facilities and two clean water storage tanks, of the ferro-cement type, with a capacity of 6,500 litres each.

Here Malaria, Dengue fever and infectious diarrhoea linked to the problems of contaminated water are wreaking havoc. After carrying out the feasibility studies, we are now ready to implement this project this month. Indeed, we are on the site now and would like to start this necessary project for the hundreds of people suffering from a lack of water in the region.

Water Connections project in Laindatang

by Alex | Mar 6, 2023 | Laindatang Water Connections, Urgent Needs, Water Connections

The Water Connections project, Laindatang Site, is our current top priority. Laindatang is a village without water. Everyone is sick and does not have enough to eat and drink. Children are underweight, and so are adults. We must act for these hundreds of people and give them access to clean water. Here, malaria, dengue fever and infectious diarrhoea linked to contaminated water problems are taking their toll. After completing the feasibility studies, we are ready to implement this project this month. Indeed, we are there now and wish to start this necessary project for the hundreds of people suffering from the lack of water in the region.

A simple jerrycans story in East Sumba

by Alex | Feb 27, 2023 | Food Shortages, Water Connections, Water shortages, Water, Nutrition & Survival

Two litres of water per day and per person to live. And this, thanks to an object as innocuous as an old five-litre can. A stupid plastic container? For most of us, it is an object that will go irretrievably in the trash. But here, for the families that Fair Future and Kawan Baik work with – tens of thousands of families – it is essential to the survival of an entire family because it is thanks to him that these two litres of water will come home. So, let’s talk a bit about plastic canisters, if you don’t mind, to understand why it’s so important.

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Water, Nutrition & Survival

New project presentation: 12 ferrocement water reservoirs in East Sumba

Final report released for the 115 m³ Laindatang water reservoir

Sumba HQ Concept V2 released for our 2026 socio medical center

Fighting Malnutrition Through Food and Nutrition Programs

Access to clean water is vital for human health

Reduce health risks with clean water for families

Giving life to the village of Laindatang

What does a kitchen look like without food or water

What do the sanitary facilities we build look like?

Malnutrition is taking its toll here where we are

We have a toilet for the first time in our life!

When only dirty water remains to try to survive

Kids here have to fetch water from the age of five!

East Sumba, a village without clean water!

Water Connections project in Laindatang

A simple jerrycans story in East Sumba

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Malaria education sessions in Umalulu East Sumba

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