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Drawing is already healing
👋 It's me, Alex. I'm writing to you with a smile and a little dust on my shoes. How are you all doing?
I'm writing this new story with the photo you see above in mind. It was taken in Mbinudita at the large and beautiful school we built together in 2019 and 2020, during the COVID pandemic, in the middle of nowhere on the hills of East Sumba.
At that time, there was a school made of earth and bamboo that collapsed five days before Christmas, on December 19, 2019. At that moment, only about twenty children attended classes. Today, there are more than 120, and the state has even taken over the school.
However, beyond the building, it is the children's lives that are changing. In Indonesia, especially in the ultra-rural areas of the far east, access to health starts with education.
 When a child draws, reads, plays, and interacts, they don't just learn; they avoid walking several kilometres to fetch dirty water in a container that's too heavy for them (often heavier than themselves). They steer clear of the road, snakes, the night, injuries, and fatigue.
They gradually build a different relationship with life and their future.
That's why we do everything possible to stimulate their curiosity, provide them with materials, create engaging activities, and discuss health, nutrition, and hygiene. Our prevention campaigns are also directed at children, but especially at their parents, as they are the ones who pass on the knowledge.
But let's be honest: the education system here is struggling.
Teachers, paid the equivalent of $10 a month and only every two or three months, have no motivation to travel 15 kilometres to teach. Children have no notebooks, no pencils, no shoes, and sometimes not even a chair to sit on.
So every moment we spend with them learning differently is a victory. Every drawing they make means less time risking their health, and more knowledge to build a more dignified future.
Because these are the children who will teach their children to drink clean water, not to throw garbage in the river, to protect themselves from malaria, dysentery, and polio.
Education is the first line of care here.
It serves as our guiding principle, our starting point, and our promise.
And that concentrated smile on the faces of these children as they draw... It is the most precious thing there is.
Thank you for being part of this story, and I look forward to sharing more news from the field soon! Alex Wettstein.
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