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Our Story

ABOUT US As detailed in Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child under the United Nations, sport and play are indispensable human rights that demand recognition and reinforcement worldwide. Based upon the acknowledgement that sport in general is a simple and practical tool for social development, the sport of surfing in particular can be used to motivate disadvantaged and homeless children in coastal communities throughout the world to healthy living within society and avoid negative lifestyles. Surfing is a powerful development and peacebuilding tool used in diverse coastal communities through the world to focus underprivileged, orphaned, and homeless “street” children on physical and mental health, and encourage them to work toward becoming positive and productive members of society. Beyond the Surface International sponsors three nongovernmental organizations that promote surfing opportunities to disadvantaged or disenfranchised children and have had demonstrably positive effects on communities by offering alternatives to negative coping mechanisms for these children that can lead to drug addiction, HIV/AIDS infection, criminal activity, and chronic illiteracy and poor education. Beyond the Surface International is on a mission to use surfing as a highly effective tool to assimilate underprivileged, homeless, and orphaned children into society to strengthen and even create communities, and promote social justice and peace.

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Umthombo Umthombo serves a therapeutic role in the lives of “street children” by using the sport of surfing to reach out to homeless children in Durban and transform their lives. Like many other cities, Durban has children living on its streets. in recent years there were as many as 500 children, under the age of 18 living full-time on the streets however, this is changing.Street children live all over the city but most popularly in the Point district, near Durban’s famous “Golden Mile” beachfront and International Conference Centre (ICC).Children come to the streets for an array of reasons. However, there is always a reason. Perhaps they have been sexually abused, threatened, beaten, or Mum has a new boyfriend who does not want them around and makes life uncomfortable. Sometimes their parents are sick or deceased. Whatever the reason, they arrive in the streets with trauma. Typically they are running away from something uncomfortable in their home areas. Street children are like refugees.Umthombo serves a therapeutic role in the lives of “street children” by using the sport of surfing to reach out to homeless children in Durban and transform their lives. Surfing acts as a catalyst to get children off the streets and back into their communities. The club specifically works with street children who have acute solvent addictions. Umthombo seeks to provide structure in their lives, improve their health, and gradually wean the children off solvents.

Umthombo

Durban, South Africa

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WAVES 2010

Umthombo 2011

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Beyond the Surface International is a

nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity.

All administrative costs are covered by the founder and director.

All donations and funding go directly to the three programs.

All contributions are tax deductible and Beyond the Surface International is qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under

IRS Code sections 2055, 2106, 2522.

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Beyond the Surface International is supported by socially responsible large corporations and small businesses alike. Their encouragement allows Beyond the Surface International to make financial and substaintial material donations. The people behind these companies are not only passionate about their products and services but believe in giving back to communities through sport for development and peacebuilding. Thank you and mahalo to our growing Beyond the Surface International family!

Kovalam Kovalam Surf Club was founded in the belief that boredom leads homeless children to form criminal gangs. In Western society, children join into an activity group at an early age and learn key social skills. In the same effort to find a sense of camaraderie, homeless children in Kovalam often form violent criminal units. Thus, Kovalam Surf Club seeks to provide surf classes as a meaningful and free alternative to gang life.

Kovalam

Kovalam, India

WAVES

WAVES

Lobitos, Peru
WAVES creates life-enriching experiences in coastal communities through Education programs that develop youth into healthy and empowered adults and Surf Voluntourism programs that engage travelers and transform their views of the world and themselves.The idea for WAVES originated on the beaches of northern Peru in late 2004, when a group of educated local and international surfers shared a desire to help local youth with little resources enjoy surfing. Over the course of the next 3 years, WAVES formed a network over 30 dedicated individuals, organizations, and institutions in 10 countries. In 2007 a shipping container of surfboards arrived from Global Surf Industries to be used in WAVES’ programming in Peru. After a two-week pilot program in February of 2008, WAVES launched full-time Surf Voluntourism and Educational Surf Programs in Lobitos, Peru that November.WAVES for Development International is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt public charity registered in the state of New York. Additionally, WAVES for Development is a formalized not-for-profit association in Peru and Switzerland. WAVES for Development Peru signed an agreement with the Peruvian Sports Institute and the Peruvian Surfing Federation to bring Educational Surf and Surf Voluntourism programming to communities throughout Peru.The WAVES AcronymWater:WAVES believes that access to and conservation of water is a necessity for the future of humanity. 1.1 billion people around the world suffer from inadequate access to clean water. Through adventure sports, WAVES’ participants develop a special relationship with this resource, one that is easily applied to conservation activities in their daily lives.Adventure: – WAVES believes adventure is more than just an adrenaline rush. By strapping on leashes and surfing, participants build confidence, stay healthy and foster meaningful relationships while enjoying the natural environment. Adventure sports typically have high entry costs. WAVES offers disadvantaged youth access to these sports, making adventure part of their personal and social development.Voluntourism – Combining travelers’ passion for surfing with their desire to serve is possible with WAVES’ Adventure Voluntourism Tourism program. Volunteers contribute to community service activities while enjoying the adventure sports they love. In addition, these voluntourists provide surf communities and their youth with a source of intercultural exchange and camaraderie through their involvement in Educational Surf Programs.Education:WAVES believes that knowledge is empowering. The future success of communities depends on today’s youth and the education they access. Nowhere is education more important than in the world’s poorest communities. WAVES helps coastal communities use their natural environment to create educational opportunities for youth, encouraging them to become confident, responsible leaders of tomorrow.Sustainability: – WAVES believes sustainability contains 4 aspects: ecological, social, political, and economic. Ecological sustainability is the use of, impacts on, and implications for the natural environment. Social sustainability is the initial community participation of the project, the impact on their culture and their willingness to carry it into the future. The political sustainability explores the politics of the destination and other accountability issues of the project. The economic sustainability explores the impact of the money that exchanges hands

Our Story

Emi Koch is in her last year at Georgetown University in Washington DC studying Psychology and Justice and Peace Studies. She is also the founder and director of Beyond the Surface International. As the daughter of a former lifeguard, Emi was introduced to the ocean at an early age. All she wanted to be was a professional surfer. But one day in her final year in high school everything changed. Her teacher pointed out a statistic: “if the world’s population was condensed into one village of 100 people only one person of that 100 would have a chance at a college education. Upon hearing that statistic, Emi felt that she was that one person in the village, and that she needed to fight for the rights of the other 99 people so that they would have the same opportunities she had.Emi enrolled at Georgetown University as an International Politics Major with her career goal to be a US Diplomat. The summer after her first year in college she went to Nepal and lived with Buddhist monks and taught homeless children and young refugees from Tibet in the monastery school. This was when she realized what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.Emi still had the passion for surfing inside her and tried to figure out a way to combine that passion with her passion for social justice. While volunteering in Nepal she heard about a nonprofit founded by a professional skateboarder. He combined his passion for skateboarding with his passion for helping kids in Afghanistan. When Emi came back home she bought the "Nonprofit Kit for Dummies" and Beyond the Surface International was born.

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