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The Surfer Kids was founded in 2010 in Mossel Bay, in the Southern Cape of South Africa and is a registered Non-Profit Organization (NPO) with registration number 136-987 NPO.
Our MISSION STATEMENT is: “The empowerment of marginalized and impoverished youths through character building activities that teach commitment and dedication”
Our primary medium for achieving this objective is surfing.
THE SURFER KIDS Board of Trustees are:
- Hermann Vivier -Co-Founder, Chairman
- Jenya Zhivaleva – Co-Founder, Trustee
- Andries Matthysen – Trustee
- Thinus Mouton – Trustee
THE SURFER KIDS was originally founded as the Social Outreach Arm of UNRAVEL SURF TRAVEL, a surf & travel business partnership between husband & wife Hermann Vivier and Jenya Zhivaleva.
UNRAVEL SURF TRAVEL specializes in Surf Trips throughout Southern Africa and provides ongoing support to THE SURFER KIDS, which includes an Outreach Day with THE SURFER KIDS on every two-week Surf Trip of the Garden Route!
The Surfer Kids have since evolved into an fully fledged independent organization, with a Core Surf Program that runs five days a week and a team comprising 3 full-time and 2 part-time members.
The Surfer Kids is funded entirely through donations, both from local and international supporters, businesses and partner organizations.
After six years of being operational, in 2016, The Surfer Kids realized their long term goal, and achieved their most significant milestone to date, by opening a permanent headquarters at Diaz Beach.
The Surfer Kids Center at Diaz Beach houses an equipment inventory, a surfboard repair facility and a media center with high speed Internet. It has enabled The Surfer Kids to vastly expand the scope and efficacy of their program.
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Linne' McCallaghan
a week agoBIG safety concern for the children involved. Witnessed multiple incidents where smaller, inexperienced children were exposed to unfit conditions, putting them and others in the water at serious risk. Witnessed a specific incident where a board was snapped in bigger conditions, and the "coach" stood in the parking lot afterwards screaming at the children in full view of fellow surfers. He did not even paddle out with them, but instead stood sipping his coffee, whistling and screaming from the rocks while the kids took a hammering in the ocean for a solid 10 minutes before they paddled back in. MULTIPLE incidents involve children surfing into each other and into and over other surfers. Fellow surfers have had to pull out of waves to avoid what could have possibly been fatal incidents, because multiple children were lying in the wrong spots. When trying to address it, personal insults are thrown at you, not by the children, but by the ADULTS supposedly in charge of teaching them. It's becoming a complete circus, and it would seem that the organization has lost the ability to keep control of their program. Since they have started opting for producing QUANTITY instead of QUALITY, I have lost all respect for a program I would traditionally have supported. @surferkidsnonprofit, please feel free to make contact if you would like to address it (we have requested the relevant contact info, but to no avail). Not cool.
Tim Aldinger
4 years agoI have had the experience of a lifetime as a volunteer and I wouldn't want to miss my time there for a second. The team is doing a great job and I can recommend it to everyone to volunteer there for good purposes.
Francois Botha
2 years ago