The Long Road to Clean Water in Rural Indonesia

June 2, 2026 11:48 am

Before the first shovel touches the ground, there is another journey that few people ever see.

This short film follows our two trucks as they carry everything needed to build two new 5,300-liter ferrocement water reservoirs in a remote village of East Sumba. The roads are little more than rocky tracks crossing steep hills, rivers, and isolated landscapes where access remains a daily challenge.

Along with cement, tools, and construction materials, we also transport our temporary home: cooking equipment, bedding, water, food, and everything required to live and work on-site for nearly three weeks.

When clean water does not exist, every reservoir begins with a long road. This is the first step of a project that will help families store safe rainwater and reduce the burden of collecting water every day.

The work starts long before construction begins.This version works well both as a YouTube description and as a longer WhatsApp status.

Three Weeks in the Field Building Water Reservoirs

June 1, 2026 8:38 pm

For the next two to three weeks, this small village in East Sumba will be our home. Here, we have just started building the first of two new 5,300-liter rainwater reservoirs.

For the families living here, water is not a convenience. It is a daily challenge that affects health, hygiene, nutrition, and dignity.

These two reservoirs are only the beginning.

Our goal is to build at least a dozen more in villages that still have no reliable access to clean water. But we cannot do it alone.

If you would like to help, please support the construction of more reservoirs. Every contribution helps bring safe water closer to families who need it most. Together, we can turn rain into life. #WaterConnections

Training the Teams Behind the Sumba Sepsis Study 2026 | Understanding Sepsis in Rural Indonesia

May 31, 2026 11:29 am

The Sumba Sepsis Study 2026 begins long before the first household interview.

Over two intensive days of training, nurses, healthcare workers, Kawan Sehat health agents, and enumerators learn how to conduct interviews, collect reliable data, and communicate respectfully with families living in some of the most remote villages of East Sumba.

Through realistic role-playing exercises, participants prepare for interviews that may last up to two hours per household. They learn how to explain complex medical concepts, how to ask sensitive questions, and how to ensure that every answer accurately reflects the realities experienced by the families they meet.

Over the coming months, these teams will visit nearly 600 households across East Sumba. Their mission is to help us understand why sepsis remains such a major cause of suffering and death, why many patients arrive late for treatment, what barriers prevent access to healthcare, and what factors contribute to severe infections and preventable mortality.

This study represents an investment of more than half a billion Indonesian rupiah and brings together healthcare professionals, researchers, community leaders, and international partners.

Because understanding sepsis is the first step toward preventing it.

Sumba Sepsis Study 2026
Understand. Prevent. Save Lives.

#SepsisStudy2026 #SepsisAwareness #GlobalHealth #PublicHealth #RuralHealth #Indonesia #EastSumba #PrimaryMedicalCare #FairFutureFoundation #KawanSehat

Inside Rumah Kambera: 2,248 SolarBuddy Lamps QC for East Sumba Schools

February 4, 2026 2:18 pm

This film offers a window into the work that happens before a child ever presses a button and sees light.

At Rumah Kambera, our base camp in the far east of Indonesia, we brought together four Rotary Australia members, around ten volunteers, and the full Fair Future and Kawan Baik Indonesia teams for two intense days. We checked every lamp, fixed what needed fixing, labelled each unit, and registered it in the SolarBuddy Tracker app so every school is accountable and every delivery is traceable.

Quality control is not paperwork. It is safety. It is reliability. It is respect for the families who will depend on these lights at night.

In East Sumba, more than 10,000 children, 100 schools, and 100 villages still live without electricity. For them, light means studying after sunset, moving safely at night, and reducing the risks associated with candles and kerosene. This is what prevention looks like when you work far from the grid.

Thank you to Rotary Australia, our volunteers, and every hand that turned a donation into something real.

@SolarBuddyorgLtd @KawanBaikIndonesia @rotary @KementerianSosialRI @upt-kphsumbatimur9690 @UNICEF @who

The Impossible Road to Laindatang School and the Children Who Walk It Every Morning

December 11, 2025 6:24 pm

Laindatang is a village we know well. Over the past three years, we have built twelve water reservoirs of 5000 litres or more, including a 115,000-litre tank, installed sanitary facilities, and regularly train teachers and families. Two Kawan Sehat health agents also work here. However, none of this can operate without access, and the road to the school has become nearly impassable.

Yesterday, I cycled the eight kilometres up to the hilltop school. This track, already the steepest in the area, is one we concreted ourselves so trucks could deliver materials for the reservoirs. Today, it is broken again—slippery, cracked, covered in mud, and treacherous at every turn. I had to stop dozens of times just to stay upright. Filming while moving was impossible; the risk of falling was too high.

Children walk this road every morning, often barefoot, arriving at school soaked and covered in mud. Some teachers cannot reach the classrooms at all. Yesterday, only three teachers got there for six classes; the others were trapped below because the road is no longer maintained. The authorities remain absent, too preoccupied elsewhere, leaving the community on its own.

Two teachers live beside the school in a fragile shelter without electricity or running water, aside from what we have provided. At night, they rely on a single SolarBuddy lamp to see. This film shows what access means in East Sumba. Without a safe road, education, health, and even daily life are pushed further out of reach.

@KawanBaikIndonesia @UNICEF @rotary @malariapartnersinternation8808 @KementerianKesehatanRI @KementerianSosialRI @upt-kphsumbatimur9690

Kawan Sehat Health Agents Strengthen Care in Ultra Remote East Sumba

December 11, 2025 4:52 pm

In East Sumba, the Kawan Sehat health agents are often the only medical presence for entire villages. Every three months, or whenever they call us, we restock their medicines and equipment, review their cases, and sit with them to answer every question. This time we worked together at the Nggaha Puskesmas, alongside its director, discussing the rise of leprosy, the growing HIV epidemic, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, and how to manage infections when supplies run low.

We also focused on the Kawan Sehat app, a tool they use daily to follow patients, record symptoms, and guide decisions. They believe this app should be mandatory for all health centers in ultra rural regions, and the Puskesmas director shares the same view.

Today we gave each agent new antibiotics, malaria treatments, wound care materials, and the tools they need to keep caring for hundreds of patients every month. Their work is demanding, but they carry it with courage. This is how Primary Medical Care becomes real, village by village, life by life.

The Day Night Changed – Solar Power for a Remote Sumba School

December 2, 2025 4:36 pm

The journey of SDN Mbajik in Haray, East Sumba, is a testament to how access to electricity can transform an educational ecosystem and uplift an entire community. Initially, students and teachers were bound by daylight. As dusk approached, the atmosphere shifted to a sense of urgency to complete tasks before darkness fell. This lack of power limited educational opportunities and quality of life, proving that electricity is more than just a convenience; it is a necessity for progress.

The turning point came through a community-driven effort involving Fair Future, Smart Energy Tech, Kawan Baik Indonesia, and the residents of Haray. In a remarkable display of determination, they manually transported almost a ton of material over rough terrain, embodying the spirit of community empowerment. The installation of solar panels marked not just the culmination of their hard work but the beginning of a new way of life.

With electricity, the school grounds came alive at night, enabling evening classes and interactions that were once impossible. The community gathered for an unforgettable cinematic experience, highlighting how such projects can bridge educational gaps and broaden cultural horizons.

This initiative is merely a small step in a larger mission. Over 100 schools and villages in East Sumba still await similar transformations. The success at SDN Mbajik sparks hope and motivation to replicate the project throughout the region, ensuring that no child’s education is curtailed by the setting sun.

For further support and information, Fair Future invites you to join their journey. Such grassroots initiatives are fundamental to promoting sustainable development and global community resilience.

To support or learn more, visit our website: https://fairfuturefoundation.org

#FairFuture #EastSumba #SolarEnergy #EducationForAll #CommunityEmpowerment

One Day in My Life in Lahiru as a Kawan Sehat Health Agent

November 18, 2025 4:35 pm

In this film, we spend a day with Sarlota and her husband Yosef in the village of Lahiru, in the Mahu district. They are both Kawan Sehat health workers with the Primary Medical Care program. Yosef smiles, saying he's the only man among all these women. They laugh about it, but they take their work very seriously.

Sarlota is also a teacher for the Charis Foundation, which builds small learning centres in areas where there are no schools or where the schools are too far away. Yosef is a farmer. He grows rice, corn, and a few watermelons to feed his family, and when he can, he sells his produce.

From dawn, the day is busy. Sarlota cooks and does laundry. Yosef cleans and repairs the house. Together, they walk down a steep and challenging path to the river to fetch water for cooking, drinking, and washing. The round trip is over a kilometre. They often slip on the path, and the jerrycans and wet clothes are heavy, but this is their daily life.

Back home, Sarlota bathes her baby in warm water, which has been boiled and infused with local herbs to protect its health. Yosef goes to the garden to tend the crops. Then, they prepare their home for the next stage of their lives.

Every day, dozens of people come to their homes for treatment. Thanks to the support of the Fair Future Foundation and Kawan Baik Indonesia, Sarlota and Yosef examine people with fevers, clean wounds, dispense medicine, and explain how to prevent illness.

For them, caring for their neighbours is like caring for their own family. This film gives them a voice. It shows what primary healthcare is really like in a remote village.

#KawanSehat #PrimaryMedicalCare #UltraRuralHealth #CommunityHealth #WomenInHealth #RuralLifeIndonesia #CleanWaterJourney #GrassrootsMedicine #FamilyAndVillage #FairFutureFoundation