Children can't learn effectively in darkness or when suffering from chronic infections. By electrifying schools, improving nutrition, and providing treatment for common illnesses, we create safe environments for learning and development. In this way, education acts as a shield against poverty and social exclusion.
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Welcome to the Fair Future News! Our teams have crafted each article, story, and update.
These pages showcase unique content reflecting our mission, work, and community interactions.
2,224 SolarBuddy lamps stored at Rumah kamberaâs base, ready for distribution
True stories. Real people. Humanitarian action in motion.
Here youâll find stories from the fieldâ100% real, 100% original. Every article is written by us, by those who live these moments, walk these roads, and treat these illnesses. We write them by hand, after the long days, often from tents or remote villages, because we believe in showing whatâs real.
The people, the lives, the wounds, the repairsâthis is not fiction. This is our daily reality in ultra-rural Indonesia. Every photo is taken by us. Every word comes from those who act. From emergency responses and clean water to child health and malaria cases, these stories reflect both the daily struggles and the incredible strength of those we serve.
Our News page is more than just updates. Itâs a record of direct action. A collection of emotions, medical cases, construction progress, and social encounters. We donât write for clicksâwe write for those who care, those who want to know, and those who support our mission.
Itâs raw, human, sometimes difficult, but always true. Read them, share them, let them move you. This is how change beginsâwith knowledge, emotion, and connection.
Alex Wettstein â Fair Future Foundation â Updated in June 2025
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Our latest articles
Reduce health risks with clean water for families
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.
Fighting Malaria in Eastern Indonesia
East Sumba, where we work at the time of writing this article, was experiencing a dramatic malaria epidemic. In the first quarter of 2023, there were more than 28,000 cases of Malaria, a significant increase from the previous year. A few months ago, Fair Future declared this life-threatening emergency. Despite our best efforts, Malaria cases are increasing. Here, when a child has a fever, it is more than 80% of the time a question of Malaria. We conduct health education campaigns to raise awareness of the importance of malaria prevention and early detection. Efforts to control the epidemic should include the distribution of mosquito nets, the provision of essential antimalarial drugs, as well as rapid diagnostic tests.
Medical care for children affected by Malaria
In this "Picture of the Day", Fair Future and Kawan Baik medical teams provide medical care to a child most likely affected by Malaria. He is less than two years old and has a fever of 40.6. Her symptoms fit this diagnosis of Malaria. We give him appropriate primary medical care to reduce his fever as quickly as possible. Then he will go for treatment tomorrow at the nearest health centre, more than three hours from the village.
Malaria is a severe public health problem, especially in the ultra-rural and impoverished areas where Fair Future and Kawan Baik Foundations work so hard. Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Children under five and pregnant women are also particularly vulnerable to Malaria, as their immune systems are less developed and may have more difficulty fighting infection. People suffering from chronic illnesses are also vulnerable (HIV, Hepatitis, malnutrition, etc.)
Ultra-rural and poor areas such as East Sumba are particularly vulnerable to the spread of Malaria due to factors such as lack of water or contaminated water, deplorable housing conditions, lack of access to healthcare health and preventive measures, inadequate sanitation… Moreover, here we do not have antimalarial drugs nor rapid tests to detect the disease. This makes our treatment and prevention work very difficult.
PMC program evaluation in Lapinu
These women linked to the PMC program devote part of their lives to saving others. These unsung heroines work tirelessly to keep people from the danger of illness and injury. They put their lives on the line to ensure others can live to see another day. Teachers trained in primary medical care, these women are the backbone of these ultra-rural communities in East Sumba. They exemplify true bravery and selflessness, and we are eternally grateful for their service. Therefore, we express our deep gratitude to all women who save lives. Thanks for what you’re doing for the others.
PMC program evaluation in Kabanda
Kabanda is genuinely one of the most isolated I have ever seen. Getting it is difficult, even dangerous, at times. No road leads to this village; only extremely steep or steep stony paths allow us to go there. It took us over six hours to get there, including four hours of absolute terrain with the Truck of Life, a 4×4 medical truck specially designed for this journey. Kabanda is no exception; so many villages are in the same situation: That is to say, they have no road leading there. This raises – among other things – the question of access to health care, of course. And it is for these types of communities that Fair Future exists, and together with our friends from Kawan Baik, Sumba Volunteer and Charis Foundation, we have created this primary medical care program.
Check blood pressure in rural areas
Here in the ultra-rural and poor areas where Fair Future Foundation and Kawan Baik Indonesia work, populations tend to have a higher prevalence of high blood pressure than in urban and wealthier areas. This is mainly due to poor diet, excessive tobacco consumption, and poor hydration. Of course, poverty and limited access to resources will also contribute to higher stress levels, increasing blood pressure. An unhealthy lifestyle increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems. We teach some âKawan Sehatâ health workers participating in the primary medical care program to measure blood pressure and take the necessary measures.
Check Blood Pressure as part of the PMC program
This new "Picture of the Day" shows you Mama Katerina, from the village of Lapinu, who is learning to take blood pressure with Dr Aldo. She knows what a systole is or a diastole is and from when and under what conditions there is hyper or hypotension. She will also learn to give appropriate medical treatment (Captopril) for high blood pressure.
As part of the Primary Medical Care program, Katerina and eight other "Kawan Sehat" health workers participate in this unique pilot experience. These women teachers can measure a patient's blood pressure and give appropriate medical treatment in case of hypertension.
It is a social and medical revolution, in our opinion. The fight and prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases are essential here in the ultra-rural regions of eastern Indonesia. To be active and efficient, our medical teams provide knowledge and equipment (manual blood pressure measuring device, stethoscope) in each pilot village. They are five out of the thirty-five in which the PMC project is implemented.
This, for example, has led us to talk about active and passive smoking. To make it clear, tobacco is dangerous for your health, and it is also the cause of high blood pressure and, consequently, strokes, heart attacks, respiratory problems and a host of other related diseases at the cigarette shop.
PMC program evaluation in Mbatapuhu
Non-professionals who give medical care and medicine to people, sick children, and injured. They do so through a unique and innovative medical care program. Because here, there are no doctors, no health centre, or else too far away. No one has a vehicle, and the roads that lead to these villages are often impassable. This program saves and preserves the lives of children as well as adults. Today, we are in Mbatapuhu.
Giving life to the village of Laindatang
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.
PMC – Teachers receive their training certificate
This new "Picture of the Day" shows three real heroes and three incredible women, Merlin, Siyane and Sarlota. In the ultra-rural and isolated village of Kabanda, the three participants and teachers in the primary medical care program received their first work and training certificate.
This follows the teaching they received from the foundation's teams in December 2022. Complete medical training based on fifteen modules, which explain and demonstrate how to care for a sick or injured patient (adult or child ). This is in villages where no health centre, doctor, or health professional is present, available or accessible, and most of the time, like here in this village, where no road leads.
You must understand the situation, friends: These women come from Asia's most rural regions and perhaps even the world. Most have not been to school or received basic compulsory training. They were trained for three months in teaching in the ultra-rural areas by a partner association called Charis Sumba.
So you have to imagine their pride to have succeeded in becoming one of these health workers, the person in the village responsible for providing first aid in an emergency, the possibility of illness in the event of an injury, an adult or a child. So when they received this certificate, tears flowed. Their tears flowed ours too, and it was a moment of incredible strength, but above all, very emotional.
In principle, here, and related to local culture and traditions, a woman takes care of household chores, fetching water, cooking for the children, and caring for the family. These three female superheroes are not only teachers within the framework of Charis Sumba, but they are also now – and for more than four months – the health workers of the PMC program. They are the ones who can save a life in the absence of a medical centre, medical care or a doctor in the village. This is not anything in terms of enhancing the role of women in ultra-rural villages; this is immense and important progress.
Evaluation of 8 Kawan Sehat agents, in Mbinudita
In the village where it all started for us: The #rebuildmbinudita program is the construction of a school, and the construction of a drinking water network for more than 2700 people, 60% of whom are children under 12 years old . It is really the (re)construction of an entire village or learning to live healthier, healthier all together, within the framework of the creation of innovative programs. Access to primary medical care is part of this program here in Mbinudita and it is only natural that we have included it in this Care program.
PMC program pre-assessment in Mbinudita
Fair Future teams examine and investigate more than two hundred cases of various illnesses or injuries treated under the primary medical care program by health workers. We also take stock of what will happen next week to accurately assess the supply of new equipment, drugs and medical devices. We also tell them that three will be part of a “test” screening program for high blood pressure and, in this case, the “prescription” of treatment and an appropriate medical procedure.