All Articles & News: Fair Future’s Impact in Rural Areas

This "Picture of the Day" shows you a young girl between ten and twelve, returning from the only water point in the village. She had to walk a few kilometres to fetch these five (5) litres of water, which is unhealthy since everyone does the laundry at this water source. This small amount of water will be used by his family, who, on average, can only use 2 to 3 litres per day per person. Location: Mata Air Payianu, Prai Paha, Nggaha Oriangu, Sumba Timur, NTT.

The jerry cans? They are essential because it is the only, or cheapest, way to fetch water from wells and distant water sources. They're also handy as they have a cap, but all here also use plastic to make a rudimentary 'seal' to make the container even more airtight, so you don't lose any water along the way. These cans are old 5-litre cooking oil cans. Once empty, people have to buy them expensively for their water needs. Some are years old and have travelled thousands of miles on the heads of these East Sumba children.

Here at Rumah Kambera, Fair Future and Kawan Baik staff have recovered quite a few ancient ones. We exchanged them for new ones, which we brought filled with water, clean and healthy with the Truck of Life.

In a few days, we will be there and collect more old jerrycans. They are true testimonies, like certain people's faces: Marked by hours of walking and exhausting work, fatigue exhaustion; these are often beautiful faces that we don't forget.

This "Picture of the Day shows you a family looking at the Fair Future and Kawan Baik teams who are finishing the construction of the first toilets in the history of this family, of this small group of houses. It's an incredible event for all of them who, until now, went out into nature to pee and poo. Location: Prai Paha, Nggaha Oriangu, Sumba Timur, NTT.

These toilets are part of more than forty toilets – healthy sanitary facilities – built by the Foundation as part of the #waterconnections project in East-Sumba. We also had to drill three deep wells and build more than thirty water reservoirs with a capacity varying between 3,500 and 24,000 litres, all connected by tens of thousands of meters of HDPE pipes.

This "Picture of the Day": To live old, live happily, as the saying goes. This man is not old, but the harshness of life here, the hours spent on gravel and dirt roads fetching unhealthy water and consuming it, give him the traits of an old man from the village. Location: Padi, village of Mbinudita, East Nusa Tenggara.

An old bamboo cane that he made himself, just a pareo to wear, his skin tanned by the sun and the work in the fields, the rice paddies. His thinness is linked to eating his fill here being impossible. Him? He's not that old, but he doesn't know his age. He tells us: 60 years. And he is there, we have known him for a long time. He attends the meeting with the families of Padi, Mbinudita, and East-Sumba.

He listens to us talk about the means that can be put in place so that he too can have a better life, a life with less water stress, less disease, and more to drink and eat, thanks to the means and infrastructures that Fair Future and Kawan Baik have built the last four years here.

This "Picture of the Day": Yesterday, we asked the children to sing a song outside, in front of their school in SD Negeri Mbinudita. A song that we recorded and which will serve as a support for the film "Matawai", which Fair Future produced. A film about the immense problems linked to the lack of clean water here in this region… Location: SD Negeri Mbinudita, East Nusa Tenggara.

In 2019, there were only about sixty, in 2023 there are more than a hundred and this is increasing. From three classes, we went to five and it will grow even more during the year. More children mean more classes, more teachers and more life too.

Yesterday, Kawan Elthon, Primus and Ino recorded the children singing a song called: "Akulah Sang Air", which means: "I am water". So yesterday was a great day for all these little ones, to whom we explained what we were doing. Soon you will be able to hear them as part of the film "Matawai" (water sources) which will be presented in the next two weeks.

"Akulah Sang Air – I am water"… Nothing could be more true here for all these children whose primary mission -in their everyday life- is to often cover several kilometres on foot, to fetch a few litres of water which is potentially dangerous to health. But since 2019, Fair Future and Kawan Baik are changing things here, in this huge region of Prai Paha, Nggaha Oriangu in Sumba Timur. All now have access to a source of clean water via #waterconnections, to a school #sdmbinudita, to primary medical care #primarymedicalcare among others…

In this "Picture of the Day", a young girl from the village of #Mbinudita is happy because now she and her family have access to water, so they can wash. Before for her, washing was once every two weeks, even once a month for others from the same village. Location: Prai Paha, East Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara

The consequences of not washing on the body are disastrous: Development of microbes on the skin causing many skin diseases such as Scabies, ringworm, or dermatosis, and also much more graceful diseases: Typhoid fever, Hepatitis A, and Cholera. Not being able to wash leads to death linked to the development of the diseases mentioned. It is also a strong signal of the lack of water in a village. Not being able to wash for lack of water also means not being able to eat and drink enough.

Practising good personal hygiene is essential to allow proper functioning of the skin (breathing, secretions). Washing keeps the skin healthy, relaxes the body and maintains a positive self-image. This is why Fair Future and Kawan Baik develop solutions for access to better health by providing access to healthy and clean water. The cheapest and most effective drug.

In this "Picture of the Day" The work of these female superheroes, who have performed hundreds of primary medical procedures since December 2022. This program is because there is no access to medical care here. These women are the only possible resources, and what they do is extraordinary. Location: East Sumba – NTT.

The primary medical care program that Fair Future and Kawan Baik have set up is unique worldwide. A reminder? This program aims to provide theoretical and practical means to teachers in isolated villages to offer first medical care in the event of injury or illness of a child or an adult. It's simply outstanding; it saves lives. 

It focuses on specific populations, groups and communities that are excluded from healthcare access systems and left behind. It offers knowledge and tools to teachers in ultra-rural villages to heal and save lives. It is the teachers of schools isolated from everything who provide first aid; 95% of them are women. There is no doctor or access road here, and the nearest health centre is often hours away. Fracture? Malaria? Dengue? A snake bite? A burn? A choking person? Acute fever in a child? These women, these teachers from isolated villages, are also caregivers, real heroines in their interventions.

In this "Picture of the Day" a man who must be 40 years old (but who seems much older), is going to prepare the little rice he has found in the house. It will be for his meal or all those of the week certainly. He cleans it with the wind blowing, throwing it in the air from his rattan basket in front of his house. Here in the ultra-rural villages, few people own rice fields, so they have to buy rice when they can. Location: Desa Mbinudita – Prai Paha.

Eating healthy here? It is very complicated, it is even impossible. The water available is scarce, even if we change this in certain regions. All the meals for these families in East Sumba – where Fair Future and Kawan Baik set up socio-medical projects – consist of corn and a little rice when the families have it.

Vegetables are far too rare or you have to look for those found in the forest, in nature. Meat is almost never present, or when there is a feast they will kill a pig or goat to cook it and share it with friends and family. Fruits? Maybe one day, in a photo, they saw some.

In #sdmbinudita, East-Sumba, the #waterconnections project provides access to healthy and clean water sources close to families' houses. They can cook, and have a vegetable garden to grow their own vegetables. Gradually, habits change, and the health of the villagers improves.

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.

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".