Access to healthy toilets and a significant challenge for children’s right to health.

In East Sumba, in rural areas, very few households use sanitation facilities, often with severe health and environmental consequences. Quality toilets save lives. They are essential to preserving children’s health by preventing the spread of disease through human excrement.

Hello friends, how are you?

25.10.2022 | After having built thirty Ferro-cement clean water storage tanks and already four healthy sanitation facilities here in the #mbinudita area, here are some pictures of the suite in RT04 in Wondenu, Mbinudita village. It takes our teams on site two to three weeks to build sanitary facilities, including two toilets, showers, a washing point and the wastewater filtration system. It’s a heavy job because the conditions here are very complicated: Road access is non-existent, it’s boiling, and the rainy season started a few weeks ago. That being said, and regardless of the obstacles, it is helpful to remember that the community health programs run by Fair Future Foundation are based on raising awareness of hygiene issues and training in behaviours that limit health risks. Building toilets is not everything. Villagers need to learn how to use them too!

Working with communities for better hygiene practices: Some images feature Bapak Rinto. He was born in the village of Mbinudita, and with his wife, Mama Rinto, are some of the key people for the Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations teams on the ground here. Many villagers from this region where we have worked for years have become real friends. When we are not there, we miss them. Maybe that’s how we can define friends, what true friendship is, isn’t it?

By the way, I just remembered that Bapak Rinto told me this a short time ago: “- Our new toilets are a source of pride; my family likes to use these toilets, and we also like that now it no longer smells around our house.”

Our Time-Line for #WaterConnections: We still have about ten sanitary facilities to build by the end of December 2022. One or two deep boreholes, and more than 4,000 m of PVC pipes to connect, then bury. This tells you the amount of work we have on-site.

This morning, we had a big meeting with members of Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations. Many good ideas were shared, and some will be applied to optimize our work. We must also find a solution for the easternmost region of this village (RT01 and RT02), which do not yet have access to water in quantity but for which we have already built two colossal water storage tanks of rain and a complete sanitary installation. But we may have to find a way to help these 150 people on site. Indeed, we have many projects in progress here from our Base Camp in Rumah Kambera, and we must find the right solutions so that everyone is happy and happy in the work that occupies us almost every day of the week.

26.10.2022 | For us here, the work continues, just like yesterday. Today is a different day. Smiles are in order, despite the rain and the working conditions that have not favoured us for two to three weeks.

In these few images, we are digging by hand a safety tank which will be used to collect the wastewater from these new sanitary facilities. This is one of ten facilities we have yet to build here in East Sumba as part of the #waterconnections project, the site of #rebuildmbinudita. To do this, Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations rely a lot on the help of the villagers. Read all posts related to the Water Connections project here.

And it’s been over three years now that we’ve all been working together hand in hand. To improve the living conditions of people without access to water, electricity, road access, and often without access to medical care, even the most basic.

Every day in the region, children under five fall ill or can die from simple diarrhoea caused by unsafe water or a lack of sanitation facilities. Here too, the absence of toilets at school also pushes young girls to be absent during their menstruation.

A simple truth that we keep repeatedly repeating: Fair Future estimates that every dollar invested in access to clean water and safe toilets saves an average of $4 in medical costs, prevents deaths and increases productivity. Hygiene promotion is also considered one of the most cost-effective public health interventions. Conversely, a lack of sanitation hampers economic growth.

Come on, and we’ll bind you to your day’s business. It’s almost the weekend for everyone, for us too. Tomorrow and after tomorrow, we will rest and try to recover sufficiently to attack next week in great shape. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us by email via the foundation’s website. The people in charge of this project will be happy to answer you.

We wish you a beautiful day wherever you are. Remember to take care of yourself and everyone you love. It is the most important. Alex Wettstein – Fair Future Foundation – 26.10.2022, Rumah Kambera.