SurfAid
noun - SurfAid is a non-profit humanitarian organisation that aims to improve the health, wellbeing and self-reliance of people living in isolated regions through surfing.
SurfAid’s health programs involve education in nutrition, hygiene, healthy environments and disease prevention - including mosquito net distribution. SurfAid has built an award-winning capacity in emergency preparedness and has delivered five emergency response programs following major disasters, including the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami and the October 2010 Mentawai tsunami.
Origins
SurfAid was started by a group of concerned surfers in 2000 who were struck by the suffering and preventable death in the Mentawai Islands. SurfAid now operates in the Mentawai, Nias, Telo and Banyak islands in western Indonesia, and Sumbawa and Sumba in eastern Indonesia. Many of the world’s best surf destinations are remote and people in remote areas are often forgotten, as delivering services there is costly, time-consuming and requires serious efforts. SurfAid passionately believes that no matter where people live, they have a right to access quality basic services.
Projects
SurfAid delivers a pragmatic mix of practical support and capacity building to achieve behavior change. They provide materials to build water tanks, water taps and toilets for clean water and sanitation, mosquito nets to avoid malaria, and vegetable seeds to help establish nutrition gardens to eradicate malnutrition. But it is the capacity building of community health volunteers, schoolchildren, community members and relevant government staff that really lies at the heart of what they do.
Honours
The World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) honored SurfAid with their humanitarian award in 2007, ahead of more than 49,000 other not-for-profits. WANGO said: “SurfAid embodies the positive values inherent in surfing, namely individualism, courage, dynamism, and adaptability, and seeks to harness these attributes in implementing projects with measurable results.”
Open Water Swimming Project
MORE Than Sport™ ambassador Meredith Novack is an American channel swimmer who will attempt a 220-mile (354 km) stage swim around the island of Oahu in August 2015 called the Swim Around Oahu. She expects to complete the tropical island circumnavigation in 3 weeks where she will swim 5 hours a day. Novack will raise money and awareness for SurfAid.
