The 10-year history of SurfAid International is an inspiring story of responsible tourism and cross-cultural partnership.

Great things often have small beginnings.

Little did Doctor Dave Jenkins realize when he created SurfAid International, to promote community health and education in the Mentawai Islands, that it would end up being a major emergency response organization in the island chain off West Sumatra.

It is an area that has had more than its share of natural disasters since 2004. Its location, on a highly dangerous fault line, means that there will inevitably be more tragedies, such as the earthquakes and the tsunami that SurfAid has already confronted.

The relatively new worldwide passion for the sport of surfing grew to such an extent, that surfers began looking far beyond their home beaches for new surf locations and adventures in exotic locations. They would go anywhere to find good surf.

Since the early *70s, surfers had been going to Bali in increasing numbers and some explored further afield in Indonesia.

However in the early 1990s, a new business concept appeared. It was "surf travel", which involved charter boats located in Indonesia taking surfers to remote islands and exploring the entire archipelago for new surf spots. They found and nicknamed many now-legendary surfing locations.

The business owners were usually from Australia. Indonesia was the first country to be explored by Australian and New Zealand surfers because of its proximity, warm waters, and good surf.

In October 1999, a New Zealand surfer named Dave Jenkins, who is also a doctor, was on a surfing trip in the Mentawai Islands.

"We were anchored off a village, and I went ashore to have a look around. When the chief found out I was a doctor he asked me to come back and see some people. I returned with a small medical kit and half the village was waiting," Dave recalls.

"We had quite an emotional afternoon, coming to terms with the state of health there, seeing desperate children who were sick. They had worms, anemia and potbellies from malnutrition.

"One woman with pneumonia was brought to me in a wheelbarrow. She died later that night," he said. People were dying of malaria, pneumonia, cholera, malnutrition, and women and children were dying unnecessarily in childbirth. This was the village of Katiet, at the southeastern end of Sipora Island.

The contrast between life on their well-equipped boat and life in the village of Katiet was too much for him to ignore. He discovered that there had never been a doctor there.

Dr. Dave Jenkins resolved to do something about it. He quit his job with a multinational corporation, sold his house and, from then on, put all his time and energy into this aim. He created SurfAid International. For a quite a while, his commitment came out of his own pocket, until he ran out of money and everyone around him got caught up in his passion.

After a lot of networking, roping in several other doctors and friends, SurfAid had accumulated enough money to do their first pilot project. They moved into a village, educated people and distributed insecticide-treated mosquito nets to families. People did not even know that mosquitoes were the carriers of malaria.

Then Lonely Planet (publishers of the Travel Guides) got behind them - their first significant corporate donation.

An American surf journalist visited the Mentawai Islands and saw what SurfAid was doing and he sent an open letter appealing to the collective conscience of the US surfing industry, inviting them to get involved. Dr. Dave was invited to speak to the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) at their annual conference.

He told them that, after just one year, the anti-malaria pilot program had already produced a 75 percent reduction in malaria cases and appealed to them to get behind the cause. Soon he was talking to Billabong and Quiksilver in Australia and others. SurfAid was going to survive.

Work continued until, on Dec. 26, 2004, the massive earthquake and tsunami occurred right in SurfAid's "own territory" and changed everything for them. Dave, who was in New Zealand for the Christmas holidays, packed his bags and jumped on a plane.

SurfAid's office was located in Padang and they could respond in a way that no other aid agency or NGO could. They had contact with the fleet of charter surf boats and their captains, who knew the devastated area like the backs of their hand, so they chartered the boats and manned them with medical personnel. They became coordinators of the aid effort and found themselves advisors to governments and NGOs, including the United Nations, AusAID and NZAID.

Then, on March 28, 2005, an 8.7-magnitude earthquake rocked North Sumatra and the offshore islands, including the popular surfing destination, Nias Island. SurfAid and their friendly fleet of 18 charter vessels and captains, plus a helicopter, were again quick to spring into action.

Following this emergency, they returned to their community health and education programs. Then came the September 2009 earthquake (7.9-magnitude) in Padang, luckily their own office was not destroyed. Dave Jenkins reported on the devastation of Padang for ABC TV in Australia.

SurfAid has distributed 60,000 insecticide-treated mosquito nets and malaria education to more than 300 villages from Simeulue to the southern Mentawai Islands. They've expanded their programs to teach the people basic hygiene, sanitation, nutrition, and pregnancy and birthing practice, and helped with clean water projects.

They also have a schools program in New Zealand, Australia and the United States educating young people about the conditions in West Sumatra's offshore islands, and how they can be global citizens.

Fund-raising extends from school projects to the multinational surfing industry corporations, private individuals and foundations.

All of this has only occurred because the offshore islands of West Sumatra happen to be some of the world's greatest surfing locations.

Surfers from all over the world continue to arrive in the area each surfing season, to enjoy the legendary surf spots which have been discovered. However, Dr. Dave Jenkins and many other surfers and surf companies realize that they cannot just enjoy the waves, have luxury holidays and remain oblivious to the situation of the local people in the area.

SurfAid hopes to be able to extend their work to areas in Eastern Indonesia, and eventually to other regions of the surfing world wherever they may be needed.

"Surf Aid has always been about creating lasting change, not patch-ups which don't work for long," Dr. Dave said. "We are always looking to engage communities to help themselves and to help build up the local capacity of the villages, and the government too, if required."

www.surfaidinternational.org

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