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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Mbinudita | Pak Kaur and his wife talk about their life
Mbinudita | Pak Kaur and his wife explain to us their living situation related to the lack of water. Their life is simple but so complicated! Like all the other families, that of Bapak Kaur works in the fields, they are farmers. Pak Kaur and his wife tell us about their dream of having clean water here, close to home. Water to grow a garden, eat better, take a shower, and wash. But above all to be able to drink more, cook more. Fair Future and Kawan Baik foundations built a 6,500 litres reservoir in front of their house to (temporarily) collect rainwater, once the dry season is over. The drilling of a deep well close to their home would allow them to have access to clean water in quantity and quality. You can help them achieve this dream!
Laindatang | Survey, a life without water, food, electricity
Mbatakapidu – Laindatang | Following a direct request from the authorities and the government of East Sumba, we were asked to help a very isolated village without any access worthy of the name. The inhabitants, numbering 35 families, do not have access to water, electricity or medical care. The nearest water point is located more than three kilometres away, and when it is dry (about eight months a year), nearly ten kilometres from the nearest dwellings. We went there with the Truck Of Life, following the profile of the hills, hazardous paths on which sometimes we had much trouble moving forward. For nearly three hours, we had little to talk with the villagers to discuss the daily lives of impoverished and disadvantaged families. Together, we took stock of the existing situation: They only have rainwater, which they consume daily. They recover it thanks to ingenious systems which demonstrate their infinite distress. They store this water in a few hand-built reservoirs. People are sick and poor. They eat little and wash only a few times a month.
Khris Praing, Bupati of East-Sumba to Mbinudita site
The Mbinudita school is now an official school, which falls within the bosom of the schools of the Indonesian state. A huge ceremony that took more than 4 days of preparation took place on June 25, 2022 on the #sdmbinudita school site. In the presence of the Regent of East Sumba, Drs. Khristofel Praing and a number of officials, we have been able to visit the facilities already in place and built as part of the clean water access project for more than 2,500 people. Doing it on a motorcycle with the Bupati was exceptional!
Lukukamaru | A village without water, electricity, food
Access is difficult in this very isolated rural village. No road or path leads there. We spend several hours with the villagers to better understand their problems in life, their health, and how they live with almost nothing. We ask them the right questions & share looks, smiles, and tears too for some. No water, no income, can only shower once a week at most, eat only boiled corn, a little rice when they can buy it, salt, and peppers. For the rest, they get it from the forest, nature, roots and wild green vegetables. Consequences of this life: Fatigue, various diseases, malnutrition, water stress, especially psychological. It should also be noted that the pests have completely destroyed the corn crops, and the gardens and this is additional anguish. We have been planning for months to do something for this village, as for the others. A borehole, a well, a Ferro-cement tank. This would guarantee them 100% better health, a healthier life, in harmony with their environment too.
Days of medical care in rural areas
Discover the different contexts and situations in which Fair Future teams intervene to provide care, including crisis and natural disaster situations, and how and why we adapt our activities to each. Days of care like the one we present to you below we do dozens of them a year and they are adapted to people from rural areas, who for the most part have never seen a doctor before us.
Lewa | Invasion of pests as East Sumba, with Koramil-Babinsa
For three years this scourge involving families and millions of grasshoppers has returned regularly with each harvest. During high population years, they feed and severely damage almost all crops, trees, shrubs and vegetable gardens. Acres are destroyed in minutes; nothing is left! The impact is enormous for these poor families since their income is not enough to buy additional food and other plants. Fear and stress drive people to meaningless actions…
Kambajawa | Feasibility studies for a deep borehole for 40 families
Following a direct request from the authorities and the Government of East Sumba, we were asked to help 40 families who have absolutely no access to water, even in very small quantities. We went there and were able to meet the villagers during a very interesting session of nearly two hours. Together, we took stock of the situation, and established the existing situation, in particular the fact that the water distributed by the PDAM has not been arriving for more than five years in the houses and the village. The first secretary of the Regent of East Sumba was present with us and a detailed report will be provided to him as soon as possible on what can be done.
Assa 9yo burned on nearly 22% needs urgent surgery
Assaria, 9 years old, must have surgery quickly for his very serious burns to her legs & lower back. A bottle full of fuel (gasoline) fell into the house fire. At the time of the accident, he was wearing only nylon clothing and was burned. Before Assa’s state of health deteriorates significantly, let’s help him get surgery for his very serious burns on both legs. Assaria is a 9-year-old kid, who burned 20% of his body at the beginning of 2021. He is not well and we must find a solution for him together. Linked to terrible burns to both legs and back, he can barely walk and will have significant circulatory and neurological problems as he grows up. If nothing is done, he risks a double amputation. Assa must therefore undergo surgery in order to avoid much more serious health problems.
Toru Ahu, Lewa | The plague of pests that starve people
Toru Ahu, Lewa | As part of our work to improve the living conditions of families in ultra-rural areas, Fair Future Foundation & Kawan Baik Indonesia are looking for non-aggressive solutions (apart from the use of pesticides) to combat the pests that are starving people in the East of Sumba. To do this, we have to go where no one goes to meet the families who are fighting against the destruction of crops, cornfields and almost everything that grows in the families’ fields and gardens. The conclusions are quite terrible! We are looking for ways to deal with this scourge and meet the needs of families who are already very economically disadvantaged. Data is collected, information analyzed and passed on to our teams and those in a position to make a difference.
Other big challenges for our teams on the way to NTT
Notice of departure of the members of our field teams, for the following programs: The program water connections, clean & safe water in rural areas – Collection of data related to the living conditions of families in rural areas – Provide basic emergency care to all children, with a first aid kit for each school/village – Basic health and medical care in very remote areas – Improvement of logistical means in the event of emergencies and disasters – Start-up of the Program linked to our new deep well drilling rig. Fair Future Foundation and all the collaborators who make it live offer medical, social, educational, logistical, and infrastructural assistance to people affected by shortages, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care. With Kawan Baik Indonesia, we operate in the most rural and ultra-peripheral areas of Indonesia. Fair Future in the field, these are teams made up of health professionals – all local -, logistics and administrative staff, also recruited locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality, independence, and neutrality. We do not employ foreigners, we empower local resources and it is we who implement actions on the ground, without intermediaries. This is what makes Fair Future and Kawan Baik unique
Antimicrobial resistances. What happens when drugs stop working?
Bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other microbes are constantly changing to ensure their survival, we have seen this with variants of influenza, COVID-10, etc. Some have adapted so well to medical treatment that the drugs commonly used for preventing or killing them are no longer effective. These microbes cause drug-resistant infections. Their ability to survive the drugs used against them is called antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In the case of bacterial pathogens, for which antibiotics are the most common and important drugs available for treatment, this is called antibiotic resistance (ABR). We mustn’t wait until it’s too late to tackle this major health challenge.
Massive pest attacks that destroy all crops and starve the people
In East Sumba, for several days now, grasshoppers have been destroying all crops, vegetable gardens, soybeans, and corn. For three years, it has come back regularly. During high population years, they feed and severely damage almost all crops, trees, shrubs, and vegetable gardens. We are in contact with the most affected populations who tell us how the fruit of their work, their fields But also their garden, are totally destroyed in a few minutes. The impact is enormous for these poor families since their income is not enough to buy food. Rice in particular is expensive, therefore corn harvests are very important and vital for families. A new trade is in the process of being born: The sale of grasshoppers by the kilo; this is in order to eat and be nourished. The price is IDR. 5,000,000.- per kilo, i.e. less than 50 cents.
Fair Future and Kawan Baik change the nature of water
Clean water is life, health, food, leisure, energy… Water covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. It is in water that life on Earth began, so it is not surprising that all living things on our blue planet need water. Water is indeed many things: it is a vital need, a home, a local and global resource, a transport corridor, a climate regulator. And, over the past two centuries, it has become the end of the journey for many pollutants released into nature and a newly discovered mine rich in minerals to exploit. To continue enjoying the benefits of clean water and healthy oceans and rivers, we must fundamentally change the way we use and treat water.
There will always be people who live too far away, we are here to help them!
There are no toilets here, everyone practices open defecation. Furthermore, no one has direct access to water of any kind, and no access to a source of clean, drinkable water. Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations are changing that with the #waterconnections program, but there will always be people who live even further than far. We meet those people, all those families that we don’t forget. Thanks to all of you and our teams who are there, on the ground at the time of writing this line, they will also have access to one of our solutions, a borehole, a reservoir connected to the network…
We act like dowsers and their magic wands. And it works so well!
“Dowsing” generally refers to the practice of using a forked stick, rod, pendulum, or similar device to locate groundwater. Although tools and methods vary widely, most dowsers probably still use the traditional forked stick, which can come from a variety of trees, including willow, peach, and witch hazel. Other dowsers like us with the foundation use an elaborate box system and electrical instruments. And it works, it’s amazing!
Our new deep well drilling machine for #WaterConnections is finished, here it is!
Water appeared on earth about 4 billion years ago and since then its volume has remained constant. It is always the same water that circulates, transforms, and recycles itself permanently. One of the greatest dangers hanging over freshwater supplies is simply the increase in the world’s population. In 2050, there should be about 9.8 billion people on Earth, some 2.3 billion more than today.