Waves For Change
Meet Waves for Change, South Africa’s largest surf therapy program that empowers the local youth and reminds us that the ocean’s healing and restorative abilities are limitless.
Beginning in 2009 as a small, informal surf club for children from Masiphumelele (Cape Town, South Africa), Waves for Change has grown into a full force surf therapy program with the vision to change lives, one wave at a time. Waves for Change work in under-resourced communities that are affected by violence, poverty, and conflict, giving local children the skills to cope with stress, regulate behavior, build healing relationships, and make positive life choices. Now, Waves for Change has spread along the coast of South Africa and extended its efforts across Africa, into Liberia.
Children in these communities experience an average of eight to fifteen traumatic events a year, severely negatively impacting their mental health, behavior, and development going forward. By combining mental health and social services with surfing, Waves for Change aims to support and improve the wellbeing and mental health of vulnerable youth. Evidence of the lasting impact and waves of change, over a quarter of the past campers, eventually work as surf therapy mentors. Waves for Change partners with provides resources for, and trains local community members and youth from similar backgrounds as the participants to work as mentors and run these surf therapy services. These children find a sense of belonging in the ocean, an escape from stress, a greater support system, and newfound confidence and self-worth.
As a sister/brother organization under the International Surf Therapy Organization, we are inspired by the extensive work, commitment, and love they infuse into the programs they provide and the support they give to children, their team, and the community in Cape Town.
What started as a weekend surf club with the children of Masiphumelele at Muizenberg beach, a historically “whites” only beach (a perfect location with beginner waves), has turned into a powerful swell, a tangible representation of hope and change that is breaking upon the shores of many hearts in such powerful ways;
40 surf therapy youth mentors profoundly impacting the lives of over 1000 children through weekly surf therapy sessions.
Join us in celebrating all of these extraordinary beings who are changing the face of mental health, wellness, and mindfulness in Cape Town, South Africa for generations to come. Find out how you can support Waves for Change and get involved: https://www.waves-for-change.org/get-involved/
Watch Red Bull’s short documentary on Waves for Change, the first of a ten-part series called “I am the Engine,” which tells the stories of inventors and visionaries around the world who are overcoming personal adversity to become catalysts of social change.
Written by storyteller and surfsister, Emma Herrick
https://www.emmagherrick.com/