From the field in East Sumba. Medical care, clean water, prevention and community health where access remains difficult.
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This page gathers all news and field articles from Fair Future Foundation. Medical missions, clean water projects, malaria prevention, solar electrification, logistics and training in ultra-rural Indonesia. Transparent reports, real stories, measurable impact. Follow our work, step by step, from the field to long-term solutions.
Stories from the field
Original articles from our teams in East Indonesia
The work behind each story
Our teams write these articles from the places where we work. They document medical care, access to water, prevention, education and the practical decisions made with communities. Each story connects an observation from the field with the work needed to respond.
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A child looks at the water flowing from a pipe
This photograph was taken by Kawan Elthon, at the end of November 2022, at one of the Water Connections project sites. It features a child from Mbinudita, a small village in eastern Sumba that does not have water access (or not yet, but soon). When he wants water, he has to walk for hours and bring one or two five-litre jerry cans, which he often fills with dirty water. He is, therefore, often ill and hires so many people here.
But there, while Fair Future and Kawan Baik are building new toilets, the clean and present water is flowing from one of the thirty tanks of more than 6,000 litres that we have built.
It's magical to see this kid staring at water flowing from a pipe for the first time in his life. I find it brilliant. It gives me the strength to continue in what we are doing.
Do you have medical equipment or clothes?
Extract and Description of this short News | As part of the departure of the Truck of Life – week #2 of December 2022 – for Sumba East and our Medical-Social Base Camp, we still have a little space available to load equipment such as Medical equipment, medicines and clothes for children and newborns that you no longer use.
The construction of this 6700 liter water tank is complete
Thanks to the water we fetch deep in the ground via one of the deep boreholes already drilled, we can supply one of the thirty reservoirs built, including this one, for the Water Connections Project here in Mbinudita,
This facility will enable approximately 25 families to live healthier and more hygienic lives. This improvement decreases exposure to diseases caused by unclean water or lack of toilets.
Everyone is at work here in East Sumba
Since August 2021, our teams have been at work. We have built over thirty Clean Water Tanks and now nearly twenty sanitary facilities for the Water Connections Project here in Mbinudita, East Sumba.
This work could not be done with our hands because the staff of Fair Future and Kawan Baik are on site; it comes down to eight people employed on the sites. These women and men from this poor and ultra-rural region are the real heroes of the projects we are carrying out.
They are the ones who, for years (previously with the Mbinudita school), have been working with us. They are part of our family now.
Still building clean and safe water tanks in East Sumba…
Water connections create a clean water network for families from rural areas in eastern Indonesia. Each facility includes gender-specific toilets, showers and access to life-sustaining drinking water.
These water points also aim to improve people's health, especially children. From a single borehole, we create water networks using the slope of the land, solar energy or hydrodynamic pumps.
Water to reduce infant mortality, birth problems and serious illnesses linked to the consumption of unsanitary water. Improving living conditions, creating economic opportunity, creating wealth and creating mental well-being
Healthy Sanitation Construction Program
This photo is from this week. In the regions where we are active, tens of thousands of people cannot use the toilets. Do you know why? Quite simply because they don't have any, because they don't have water and no financial resources to ensure their construction.
The inhabitants, therefore, have no other means than to relieve themselves in fields, bushes, forests, ditches, streets, canals or other open areas. In our view, this is not only an attack on dignity but, above all, enormous risks to the health of families, especially vulnerable people: children, the elderly, pregnant women and the chronically ill. That's why we continue to build healthy sanitary facilities at this time with the "Water Connections" program in East Sumba.
Kawan Sehat, the full book for a healthier life
The Foundation has created an illustrated book for the young in the ultra-rural areas of eastern Indonesia. Where knowing how to read and write is not shared. It will serve as a reference book and gather most of the information on a better lifestyle, the tips and tricks that are “normal” but that most don’t know here.
Kawan Sehat, the book for the Sumba kids
Kawan Sehat means "healthy friend". This is a book for children in rural areas. Our friend Bayu illustrated these boards simply for the children to understand immediately. Each panel presents Rambu (the woman), Umbu (the man) and a Horse (the most sacred animal of East Sumba) around socio-sanitary themes. The foundation's medical teams, familiar with local customs and traditions, treated about twenty subjects. Since the beginning of January, the foundation's medical teams have been developing additional medical topics for this book.
We invite you to get to know "Kawan Sehat" in .PDF format, in its latest version, by clicking on this link. Happy reading, Kawan.
Preparing primary health care kits
Sixty (60) containers filled with medical equipment, essential drugs, and what to treat a wound quickly to prevent it from getting worse are being prepared.
Next week, more than a ton of medical equipment will reach our Rumah Kambera Medico-Social Base Camp by road. This represents a considerable volume of purchases, believe me.
The Rumah Baik Base Camp in Denpasar is filled with boxes, tape, medicines, plasters, bandages, disinfectants and other medical equipment.
Together we can make it
Let’s do it together and hold hands to reach the moon. Ensure that the primary medical care program for children can continue as the needs are enormous here in eastern Indonesia. Malaria is ravaging, expectations are high, and we lack the means to buy medical equipment, medicines and everything they all need to get better…
Malaria outbreak in East Sumba, Indonesia
Malaria is one of the most severe public health problems in the world. Here in Indonesia, and especially in the eastern regions, it is one of the leading causes of death and disease. Children under five years old and pregnant women are the most affected groups.
8 billion equal people? What about the food?
Eight billion people on earth: Are we going to starve? On the one hand, there is population growth. On the other, the world’s resources make it possible to feed human beings. How to reconcile the two? Today and tomorrow, will we all be able to provide for ourselves?
