The Sumba Foundation

In 2004 we began to address a most prominent health issue in the area, malaria, and established a comprehensive program to reduce and work towards eradicating it from
the local communities.

In 2005, we established our first health clinic and now have a total of four that operate in two districts (West Sumba
and Southwest Sumba), staffed by a team of Foundation Nurses and Midwives also trained to WHO level certification standards in malaria diagnosis and treatment.

This project has distributed over 15,000 high quality insecticidalimpregnated mosquito nets to the villagers in our coverage area and our World Health Organization certified microscopists work daily, analyzing bloodsmear
slides and treating patients with the best drugs available on the international market.

In 2010, we established our Malaria Training Center and since then have had 500 WHO level students graduate from the Malaria Training Center, delivering around 150,000 diagnoses per year in NTT. In our coverage area, we have seen a dramatic drop in the malaria rate, 93% in our original core area, and 70% island wide (Sumba Foundation, Government Clinics and UNICEF and other contributors combined).

In addition to general health and malaria control, we operate with two Eye Care nurses to perform weekly screenings at our clinics and in the villages providing the gift of sight to 100’s of people every year. For the past 12 years the Foundation has worked with volunteers and in collaboration with a group of Australian Eye Doctors from RACS (Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) and together have helped to perform 1,000 eye surgeries, and distribute 15,000 pairs of prescription glasses.

Malnutrition is one of the major health problems in this area for which we have developed several initiatives that focus on finding solutions.

Every week our nutrition staff visits the village to monitor and record each child’s weight as well as to take other data based on the WHO established growth chart. In addition to growth tracking, the children’s parents cook on-site a mung bean porridge fortified with Nutrilite Little Bits micronutrients to distribute to the children.

Our nutrition team then distributes a week’s supply of eggs, milk and Nutrilite Micronutrients to the families of the children enrolled in the program so they may continue to provide at least one high protein meal each day to their child to foster further growth development.

The School Lunch Program was started in 2008 in one Primary School (grades 1 through 6) in the area to help foster school attendance, encourage mental growth and development, and to teach the children well rounded eating habits. Since then, the program has grown to cover 12 primary schools and reaches out to more than 2,600 Primary School Students ages 7 to 12 years old, providing three high protein healthy and nutritious meals to each school per week.

Over the past 13 years, we have helped to construct and renovate new classroom buildings and washroom facilities for these schools and where available connected
schools to a nearby water project to provide
children direct access to clean water at school.

Teachers have been provided textbooks, educational tools, and inside the classrooms, desks, tables, and chairs made for the children so they had adequate facilities to learn in.
Foundation has been to build a better future for the people of Sumba.

In November of 2017, with the help of guests from NIHI® Sumba, we were able to initiate and establish our first English class. At the time, it comprised 39 primary school students. By June 2019, we officially opened our Learning Development Center in Hobawawi where we teach nearly 500 students (ages 4 to 18) English language and computer skills.

In 2012 the Foundation initiated a Health & Hygiene course taught by two teachers employed by The Sumba Foundation to increase awareness of health issues among children in grades 4 and 5: healthy, malaria and other illnesses, diarrhea, infections, healthy diets and eating habits, dental hygiene, hand washing and body hygiene, as well as trash and recycling.

The Foundation’s Organic Farming Projects teach local farmers new farming methods for sustaining their crops year-round.

The project introduces healthier foods to the communities and provides them access to our farming tractor and water
pumps to maximize their productivity.

Farmers learn how to improve their soil by applying composting methods using readily available materials. Seeds are provided to the farmers who need them and The Sumba Foundation staff provides technical advice as well as monitoring of each project’s progress.

The sustainability of these new farms is provided by The Sumba Foundation purchasing their produce to be used for cooking in the School Lunch Program.

Additionally, 10% of all crops yielded from these farming projects are donated back to the Foundation for use in the School Lunch and Nutrition Programs. Any additional surplus harvests are then available to the farmers to sell at the
local markets or for their own general consumption
as they see fit.

Our humanitarian work includes providing access to general healthcare and clinics in the areas covered by our four clinics in Hobawawi, Lamboya, Kodi, and Karang Indah.

These clinics provide healthcare, health consultation and screening, as well as medicine distribution completely free of charge to the local community.

At times we are faced with unique and often sad situations, in particular when villages burn down. We have and continue to assist the people from these villages overcome the burden created by these situations by raising funds to provide food aid, pots and pans for cooking, general kitchen
items, materials and tools to help them rebuild their homes, mosquito nets, health screenings and general school supplies such as new uniforms, notebooks, pens and pencils, to help the people affected get back on their feet.