Mentawai

I once met SurfAid International CEO Dr Dave Jenkins in Padang, West Sumatra, a few years ago, when I worked as journalist there.

At that time, he asked me to take care a few features of SurfAid’s website. Hopefully, he still remembers me…

However, I always remember one thing: he and his organization have a noble mission in Mentawai!

Six years ago, he went on a surf charter to the Mentawai Islands with one goal in mind: to find perfect waves. The surf proved to be everything he had hoped for.

What he also found, though, were the Mentawai people –mostly women and children-– suffering and dying from the ravages of malaria and other preventable diseases.

Then Dr. Jenkins went on to establish SurfAid International, a non-profit organization dedicated to the alleviation of human suffering through community-based health programs.

Good job, Dave!

SurfAid CEO Dr Dave Jenkins and Program Director Alan Rogerson have returned to Padang from the Mentawai Islands after conducting assessments of some of SurfAid’s target villages since the two major earthquakes a month ago. Dr Jenkins said that while people are attempting to get their lives back to normal as the number of aftershocks reduces, the earthquakes have had a devastating effect on a fragile economy. “Families in dollar-a-day poverty now face the additional burden of homelessness. SurfAid is determined to assist in the rehabilitation process as far as funding permits and without compromising our important long-term programs,” he said. SurfAid is currently assessing its capacity to assist in two major rebuilding projects at two of its target villages - Silabu, on Pagai Utara, and Berimanua, on Sipora Island.

Source

Post to: delicious, Digg, ma.gnolia, Stumbleupon