We will construct seven ferrocement tanks in Laindatang to provide clean water to isolated families. Three of these are funded, but four are still needed. We require CHF 2,300.- for each tank. Your support guarantees access to clean water for the most remote communities. Donate now and be part of this life-changing project.
All Articles & News: Fair Future’s Impact in Rural Areas
The news and articles page that reveals the essence of our organization. Each article highlights the experiences, values, and efforts of the Fair Future team. Our writing goes beyond reporting; it tells the essence of the communities we connect with and the challenges and triumphs we experience.
Welcome to the Fair Future News page! Our teams on the ground have carefully crafted each article, story, and update.
These pages contain a wealth of unique content that truly represents our mission, our work, and our interactions with the communities we serve.
These articles will give you a deeper look into our work, highlighting our sources of inspiration and sharing real-life experiences as they unfold.
Our stories convey our deep emotions about the people we impact, the obstacles we overcome, and the victories we achieve. Direct from action on the ground, we share authentic stories of providing medical aid, educational opportunities, and clean water to those who need it most, bringing hope into their lives. We offer honest reflections that tell real stories, reflecting the heartfelt spirit at the heart of our mission – all crafted without any AI help, but rather by individuals living this experience every day.
We invite you to engage with us and be inspired by the powerful stories of ourselves and the communities we have been privileged to serve. Enjoy reading!
Alex Wettstein – Fair Future Foundation – Updated in February 2025
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Young girls now go to school more than before
This "Picture of the Day" depicts a 12-year-old girl who goes to the #sdmbinudita school built by Fair Future and Kawan Baik, in East Sumba, in order to follow the lessons given by one of the five teachers. She is lucky to be able to go there every day. Location: SD Mbinudita Prai Paha.
Quality education for all is one of the most robust and proven pillars of sustainable development. You still have to be able to go to school. This is all the more true when you are a girl. But these successes come up against significant challenges in developing regions due to high levels of poverty, lack of food, drinking water and other emergencies to which we are trying to find solutions (access to basic healthcare and Primary Medical Care, for example).
Indeed, the main task of almost all these girls of school age in the ultra-rural villages where we are active is to fetch water that is not very clean and not very healthy, far from their homes. To do this, they have to walk for hours carrying jerrycans.
In #sdmbinudita, East-Sumba, the #waterconnections project provides access to healthy and clean water sources close to residential homes. From now on, it does not take much time to have water in quantity and quality. And so young girls can go to school.
Health, happiness & sustainable development
What does Sustainable Development Goals mean in a nutshell for Fair Future? Reduce poverty (and not eradicate it because it is impossible), increase access to basic and primary medical care, improve access to technology and knowledge, reduce the number of undernourished people, be better health, reduce antimicrobial resistance, provide quality education for all, eliminate gender inequalities, reduce all forms of discrimination against women and girls, ensure universal protection and equitable access to clean, non-lethal water at an affordable cost and much more. Our teams on the ground manage to change things, that’s obvious, but it takes time.
Elthon plays with Mbinudita’s children
This "Picture of the Day" features Kawan Elthon and a dozen children who are schoolchildren at our school in East Sumba, at the top of the highest hill in Mbinudita. These kids, all of us here, have seen them grow, change, and have a much better life than when we arrived here in 2019 to build a new school. The activities we organize with the more than 120 children who walk here to school are part of our daily work. We also play a lot together, and they participate in various tasks at school, in addition to learning to read and write.
All these children, we all know them – as well as their families – and we call them by their first names. They have a very different life from other kids in Indonesia. For them, life is combined with "hardness". But together, we are making a difference for all these families from the ultra-rural areas of eastern Indonesia.
Elthon is one of the collaborators of Fair Future and Kawan Baik Indonesia foundations. It is thanks to him that you can see the photos that we publish on the website, or on social networks. Among other things, he is in charge of the documentation and most importantly, he is a "child of East Sumba – Sumba Timur".
Washing hands to preserve health and life
Some forms of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections can lead to serious complications, especially in young children, the elderly, or people with weakened immune systems. This is why hand washing prevents the spread of disease. Indeed, many infectious and contagious diseases can be transmitted from one person to another through contaminated hands. These illnesses include gastrointestinal infections, such as salmonellosis, and respiratory infections, such as the flu, colds, and coronavirus (COVID-19). Washing your hands properly with water (when available) and soap will prevent the spread of germs, bacteria and viruses that cause these illnesses.
Deep drilling project in Laindatang
This "picture of the day" shows you a family from the village of Mabtakapidu/Laindatang, which like all the others, lives in the greatest destitution and extreme poverty. Malnutrition and infant mortality are high here.
Yes, this is one of the situations we want to act on as quickly as possible here. Fair Future and Kawan Baik are trying to help this community by offering them the possibility of having clean water in quantity in the village. We have the project to drill on-site at nearly 80m deep and build two or three reservoirs. We have found a water source close to the houses; only the funding is missing for the drilling. We have already received the submersible pump and solar panels for the site, and this is thanks to a private company in Europe.
The families of the village of Laindatang have a tough life, which is a euphemism. They do not eat every day, never meat, rarely vegetables. Rice is expensive, so they mix it with corn when they still have it and pests haven't destroyed it. To wash in the sense of "taking a shower" is maybe once a month for everyone. Her life is organized with less than two litres of water per person per day
To get poor-quality water here, the nearest well is a ten-hour walk there and back. You have to leave in the evening to return in the morning with only a few 5-10 litre jerrycans.
Read more here Kawan's.
The school we built, in Mbinudita, East Sumba
On these "Picture of the Day", we show you the school we built in 2020 and 2021 in Sumba East. In the beginning, there were three classes and 60 students. Today in February 2023, there are five classes and over 120 students.
This school is an integral part of the #rebuildmbinudita project, which consists of helping an entire rural community – more than 270 families, more than 2500 people – to have a better life.
This school, Kawan Baik and Fair Future Foundations built it in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, with materials that, for the most part, were delivered from Surabaya (more than 1500 kilometres away). It took almost two years of working in difficult conditions for all of us, for the local families to realize this. To build such a building without water, without electricity, without a road leading to the site.
Mbinudita? It is the name of a village in the heart of one of the most complicated regions in terms of access to water, food and medical care. Here, before our "arrival," there was no school, now there is one, the biggest and most beautiful of all in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur, of East Sumba (Sumba Timur). Here, families now have access to toilets, drinking water, etc.
This picture of the day was taken by Alexandre Wettstein, by Drone, on the SD Mbinudita school website
A traditional well in a rural area of East Sumba
This "picture of the day" shows you how families manage to have water at home for eating, drinking, bathing, taking care of children, watering livestock and animals, and watering gardens.
The vast majority of villages in this region, where Fair Future and Kawan Baik have been operating for so many years, do not have access to clean water, among other things! This well, dug by hand by the villagers themselves, is about 15 meters deep.
Most of the time, it is dry, or when it has water, it is of a colour that does not encourage consumption. It can be brown, beige, or chocolate, even with a little "consistency, thick" when there is little water in the well: This is because of a mixture of soil, sediments, bacteria and others microbes which reproduce there favourably. Or, it can be really white because the level of limestone is too high. In all cases, and of all colours, this water is bad and, in the medium term, dangerous for the health of families.
Teachers in rural villages heal and save lives!
The magic of this "Primary Medica Care" program? It's just that it's unique in the world and it works. The first promotion of about sixty teachers who have followed the training in primary medical care in rural areas, tells us about their "exploits" and their work as first aiders. They gain self-confidence, that's the most important thing, and we note it.
The teachers, in their village and thanks to the knowledge and medical care equipment they acquired during the courses last December, provide medical care for injured or sick children. Medical care is provided and lives are saved.
Teachers provide primary medical care
The magic of this "Primary Medica Care" program? It's just that it's unique in the world and it works. The first batch of sixty teachers who have followed the training in primary medical care in rural areas, tell us about their "exploits" and their work as rescuers. They take confidence in themselves it is the most important, and we note it. Medical care is given to children of sick or injured adults. Lives are being saved.
Having water allows them to drink and eat, to live better
This "Picture of the Day" shows you a person watering their garden in order to grow their own vegetables for the family at home.
The Water Connections program works wonderfully, water makes things possible here in East Sumba, and that's what it's all about. Clean water at home for eating, drinking and having a healthy life.
For months, Fair Future and Kawan Baik Indonesia foundations have seen a fundamental change in the habits of families who benefit from the "Water Connections" program. Gardens are created, mainy gardens actually. People eat better, drink more, have more energy and are less sick. This observation fills us with joy and comforts us in our choices and decisions. Access to better health has always been the foundation's primary mission, and healing people by giving them water is incredible.
Gardens appear in front of the small houses of wood, earth and bamboo, on the site of our school and everywhere in the village, near one of the thirty water tanks we have built. Previously, water for watering gardens was not a family's priority, with only a few litres a day available for everything. Consequently, new activities are created, and new opportunities arise. Families are gradually being rebuilt. They acquire a healthier life, and they are much healthier too.
Water Connections – This is the name of this vast program managed by the Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations. It gives access to clean water and healthy toilets to the rural populations of Indonesia.
New sanitary facilities for a healthier life
This "Picture of the Day" shows you the healthy sanitation facilities we are building here in East Sumba. Having provided access to drinking water – through the Water Connections program – to these 270 families in Mbinudita, East Sumba also offers the possibility of having toilets for the first time in these villages. And it was unimaginable a few months ago for these families living in rural areas.
Can you imagine what the health consequences are for these hundreds, these thousands of families who defecate behind a tree or the house? In a hole and having no water to flush the place? We see it every day here. Sick children suffering from diarrhoea are the daily life of our medical teams.
The Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations have made more than 20 sanitary fixtures, many of which look like this. Clean and hygienic, with water to rinse them off after use, showers to wash up, and safety tanks to collect wastewater. And now families have a healthier life. People are less sick, children suffer less from diarrhoea, and infant mortality is decreasing and will continue to decline.
Water Connections – This vast program is supported by the Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations. It provides access to drinking water and clean toilets to rural populations in Indonesia.
HDPE pipe rolls that we use to create the Water Connections.
In this "Picture of the Day", taken at the end of last December, our on-site teams are busily unrolling a 250m roll of HDPE pipe. The children of the village of Mbinudita gather at the pipes to drink fresh, clean and healthy water which flows there. This is the first time in their lives that they drink water of this quality from a pipe.
From the three deep boreholes we have drilled, we are connecting over 30 water tanks, over 20 sanitation facilities and all numerous other infrastructures that Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations have built over the past 20 months in East Sumba. Each water tank has a capacity of between 7500 and 3500 litres of clean and safe water. Each bathroom has two toilets, showers, water point for washing clothes.
These Water Connections – from the name of this vast program managed by the Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations and which provide access to clean water to the rural water populations of Indonesia – are made thanks to these enormous rolls of pipes HDPE thermoplastics. To date, it's more than ten kilometres of HDEP pipes that all of us here have pulled, buried, connected and powered to provide access to drinking water to more than 2700 people here in #Mbinudita.
Clean water in the house for the first time
Last December, while we were on site here in the village of Mbinudita, the Fair Future and Kawan Baik teams linked several infrastructures built for and around the Water Connections project by means of + /- 4000 meters of PVC HDPE pipes which we have now buried.
In doing so, we entered a significant number of houses, and for the first time in the history of these families, they had running water directly in the kitchens. You had to hear the cries of joy, the laughter too. And tears of joy for these families who suddenly have access to a source of clean water at home. Water connections create a clean and safe water network for families from rural areas in eastern Indonesia.
This image of the day shows you one of those very emotional moments, during which our teams entered one of the houses with a 1-inch pipe to connect it from the second deep borehole to the reservoir which is there and that we have built.
Women, children and water at home
Indonesian women play a vital role in water management due to their traditional responsibilities of collecting water, cooking, cleaning and raising children. These women from these ultra-rural areas of eastern Indonesia are strong. They represent tremendously well the strength and the courage it takes to survive here in this vast country. To fend for themselves most of the time, without the help of others, to meet the family’s most basic needs. Therefore, empowering women to increase water security is essential in the regions where we work. With climate change affecting water sources, it is vital to ensure that women are involved in water management decisions. This allows (we see this every day) families and local communities to improve their incomes and the health of family members, including their children.
A Lifetime work: Collecting water for the family
When there is no water on-site, and you have to fetch it, it is mainly women and young girls who take up their time and miss out on opportunities.
For women, the opportunity costs of water collection are high and have far-reaching implications. Having to fetch water drastically reduces the time they can spend with their families and care for their children, do household chores or even enjoy hobbies. For both boys and girls, collecting water can interfere with studies, sometimes even preventing them from going to school altogether.
Collecting water can harm the health of the whole family, especially children. If there is no access to water at home, even if the water comes from a safe source, the fact that it is transported and stored increases the risk that it will be contaminated with faeces before it is used.
Water Connections: Our teams are changing that; for years, we have been designing, manufacturing and supplying water connections to villages in ultra-rural regions. Fair Future improves life for tens of thousands of people.
Primary Medical Care in Rural Areas – The book
“The first step when there is no doctor” includes fourteen modules of theoretical training and practical exercises explaining how to act in the event of a medical emergency. It is intended for teachers in rural schools of East Indonesia.
This book was entirely produced by the Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations. It is based on the book "Where There Is No Doctor" by David Wegner.
From now on, it serves as a reference work for the training of teachers in the rural areas of eastern Indonesia. This book includes all the information on prevention, patient care, first aid and how to treat a wound, burn or bite. He learns to give essential drugs, cardiac massage and all the gestures that save a life.
You can see the work done by the foundation's medical teams here in the .PDF version we make available. Everything has been translated, revised, corrected and adapted to specific local compartments.