Surf Aid International to the Rescue

SURF AID INTERNATIONAL TO THE RESCUE
Encinitas-based Group Saves Children Dying From Malaria Just Yards from Perfect Mentawai Surf
By Judd Handler

The first time Andrew Griffiths witnessed the debilitating effects of malaria in the Mentawai islands of Indonesia, his reaction was like Edward Munch's painting, "The Scream" - silent horror and shock. He saw how the mosquito-borne parasitic disease devours the livers of children, resulting in severe vomiting and diarrhea.

It's hard to shake the image from his mind: near-dead, glassy-eyed five-year olds suffering intense bouts of anemia, attacking and depleting their red blood cells to the point where their immunity system is suppressed as though they have AIDS.

"I remember this one boy," says Griffiths. "He had turgid skin, so dried out that when the doctor lifted the skin it stayed standing rather than bouncing back in place. He was hours away from death, white with anemia. We had to give him treatment via suppositories."

Griffiths is a Kiwi who grew up surfing Auckland's best breaks. Why would he and hundreds of surfers like him spend their holiday in this malaria-infested remote tropical realm?

"The Mentawais have the best waves on the planet," says Griffiths.

Since the early '90s, the Mentawais have attracted the world's best surfers with exquisite, crowd-free waves. It's the ultimate idyllic surf nirvana: warm water, swells traveling unobstructed for thousands of miles, forming perfectly-spaced lines of aqua that pound onto coral reefs with ideal consistency. Picture-perfect top-to-bottom hollow barrels that most of us only dream about are the norm.

Griffiths is 33 and CEO of Surf Aid International, a non-profit organization that helps to eradicate malaria and other highly-preventable illnesses in the Mentawais.

Like Surf Aid's founder-Dr. Dave Jenkins-Griffiths, while exploring the Mentawais on a surf holiday, discovered both the beauty of spending time in green rooms and the disparity between Western and third-world cultures.

He sums up the cruel duality: "Wealthy surfers staying on yachts, surfing perfect waves all day, while meters away from shore, children are dying from a highly preventable disease (malaria)."

Not only are those diseases highly preventable, they are highly treatable, says Griffiths, from the SAI office in Encinitas, where he is one of three full-time staff in the U.S. Hatched four years ago, SAI is seeking funding for their new malaria-control program to cover 17 villages in the Mentawais.

Hopefully, the funding will increase substantially; there are a lot more kids to save. There are over 200 villages in the Mentawais, "housing" 65,000 people, and every single person is at risk of contracting malaria.

"If you live to 12 years of age," says Griffiths, you probably won't die of malaria but you'll be real sick." To date SAI has saved approximately a few thousand people from malaria, which kills over one million people per year, according to the World Health Organization.

In the few villages that SAI has acquired comprehensive data and set up eradication and education programs, malaria has been reduced by 75 percent. Mosquito nets are SAI's most important education tool. Griffiths says that 90% of the time, the mosquitoes responsible for malaria contractions bite between 11 at night and 2 am, so if the children go to sleep with a mosquito net, most of the battle is won.

SAI's operational budget for their educational program is about $400,000 a year. This will likely increase, as the amount of Indonesian locals that SAI just hired in September expanded to 55 from 15. Griffiths says that they are trying to get funding from sources outside the big surf companies like Quicksilver, Billabong and Reef.

Outside funding has started to flow, but it would be nice if an organization like the Bill Gates Foundation could jump on board and take care of the tab for years to come. (A large block of SAI's funding has come from the government of New Zealand.)

In the Mentawais, the W.H.O. estimates approximately half the children will die before the age of five. And according to U.N. data, an estimated 65% of Mentawai families have lost at least one child.

It took nearly a decade for someone to do something about the grim situation on the Mentawais. That's not to imply that Dr. Jenkins (and Griffiths) was the only one with a conscience. "But he was the only one doing anything on a structured level," says Griffiths, who moved to the Mentawais with Dr. Jenkins in April 2001, leaving London and a six-figure salary in the investment-banking business.

"Every boat captain and others who are involved in the surf-travel industry do try to help the locals," says Griffiths, "but they're not necessarily equipped to help the locals in the way they need medically. I think there's a good awareness in the Mentawais now among surfers. The problem is so enormous that it's impossible not to be conscious of it."

Unfortunately, the Indonesian government doesn't have the resources-or perhaps lacks the will-to alleviate the suffering. Because of corruption and other geo-political factors, SAI is in a better position to help the Mentawai locals than the government.

And even if you can't afford the time or the price to visit the Mentawais, you can help Surf Aid International by donating some money or your time. You never know how far your charity will extend.

Griffiths' involvement with SAI was a radical departure from how he envisioned the next phase in his life. "I thought I was going to live in the Canary Islands off Spain and learn to be a Spanish chef," he says. A thousand children thank him for his change of path.

Visit www.surfaidinternational.org for more information.