Street kids making waves
The Durban-based ‘Surfers Not Street Children’ programme that has gained international recognition from Prince Harry to the Pope and the King of Surf, Kelly Slater, is set to grow once again.
The street children programme is now reaching out to vulnerable young girls in the Durban Point area through their new initiative: ‘Girls Surf Too!’
Surfers Not Street Children has grown significantly over two decades by helping vulnerable children who are either living on the streets or at risk of street connectedness, says the organisation’s founder Tom Hewitt.
“We started out with a few of us driving around to meet street kids, listening to their stories to see how we could get involved and help out. We now have an international organisation that fuses surfing with mentorship and psychosocial care. We have a dedicated team of social workers and carers alongside surf coaches and lifeguards to ensure that the experience of surfing is therapeutic and a much bigger part of transformation in the street children’s lives.”
While the programme originally started out working with boys, this year a unique programme has been created for girls and their specific needs. “We are not only focusing on the girls living on the streets but those living in horrendous hostels in the Point area. We are providing a safe space for them to not only get away from those hostile environments but to put them on a life trajectory towards independence and self-sustainability.”
Hewitt and his talented team of social workers and carers have designed a winning formula for the streets kids to unlock their true potential and life purpose through their customised programmes centred around beach culture. “For us success is seeing youngsters coming through the programme, to become independent and self-sustainable, along with learning the life skills much needed for adulthood. We have proudly seen our kids working in restaurants and surf shops as well as becoming surf coaches and lifeguards.”
Surfers Not Street Children has garnered incredible support from extraordinary individuals who are some of the world’s most celebrated icons. “For example, we are quite well known for having the support of Prince Harry,” affirmed Hewitt proudly. “I now have a little joke about it … we had the Prince on board but now we have the King! That’s because Kelly Slater has also become a great ally of ours. We also have South Africa’s very own Jordy Smith as an ambassador for us.”
■ To support Surfers Not Street Children and make a donation visit www.surfnotstreets.org/donate