Surf-Aid provides health care for local people

Surf-Aid provides health care for local people

Ben Gordon is the ultimate beach boy. He has shining bright eyes,
an always smiling, tanned face, a muscular build and a beaded
necklace hanging around his neck.

But this sunny Australian boy is much more than just an
ordinary surfer. Even though he lives on the Mentawai Islands --
one of the most desired destinations for surfers -- Gordon is not
into tourism as most of his compatriots there. On the contrary,
he works as a volunteer doctor for Surf-Aid, an international
non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to providing
medical services to the indigenous people of Siberut, the most
populated island in Mentawai, together with his wife Amanda.

"We had not been too interested in doing aid work before
learning about this place and the Surf-Aid program," Gordon said.
"It was this special mix, an excellent opportunity to combine a
lot of different things: Traveling, knowing a new culture,
learning the Indonesian language and, of course, surfing. That we
might do quite a few people something good in the end was like
the cream on the cake."

To combine surfing and having fun with the need for medical
and logistics support for the locals is actually how the Surf-
Aid's initiator, New Zealander Dave Jenkins, got the idea to
start the organization. Jenkins is also a doctor and an
enthusiastic surfer. He came to the Mentawais for the first time
as a tourist in 1999. While visiting on Siberut he was shocked by
the alarming health situation of the indigenous people.

According to data from UNESCO, the childhood mortality rate is
32 percent, and almost all death cases were because of
preventable and treatable diseases, such as diarrhea, measles and
tetanus. About half the population carries the malaria parasite.

The only doctor at the only public health center (Puskesmas)
on the island was totally overtaxed with being responsible for so
many patients in such a difficult area.

Jenkins did his first spontaneous treatment during his
holidays. A year later he left his permanent work in Singapore to
build up Surf-Aid International, based in Padang. Last April,
Surf-Aid opened its first base on Siberut with the help of the
Gordons, who are now cooperating with the local Puskesmas. The
original idea was to prove that surfers are not only a loud crowd
of indifferent people who don't care about anything else than
having fun. Surf-Aid wants to represent a surfer community, which
compensates for what it has received. The aim is to empower the
locals in a way that they can provide for themselves in the end.

"The social changes by surfing are huge and unpredictable. So
I feel that we have to give something back to the locals in
remote surfing areas," Jenkins said.

Looking at the huge surf charter boats leaving every week from
Padang to the popular spots around the Mentawai Islands, there
should be no lack of money. Renting a boat for one day costs
between US$80 and $400.

"These people come from everywhere to get the best surf of the
world. They don't even ask how much it costs," he said.

Even though Surf-Aid is now 93 percent financed through
funding and supported by Lonely Planet and almost all important
surf companies around Padang, there is still a long way to go.
Most of the surf tourists hardly ever step on the islands and are
not interested in the problems they might have caused.

"Ninety percent of the tourists who come here just want to
have fun. By giving a donation to Surf-Aid they relieve their
conscience," Gideon Malherbe, a South African owner of a charter
boat, said. "But I think the most important thing for the
organization is to get funding without asking from sponsors."

Without a bigger and more regular sponsorship in the future,
Surf-Aid will not be able to fulfill its ambitious plans:
immunization programs for children under one year old and
pregnant mothers and training in malaria treatment for local
nurses.

But Jenkins is confident that he will manage to fill the lack
of financing before the end of this year. His latest effort is a
cooperation with Care Australia.

The Gordons, who are working without any salary, cannot afford
to stay for a long time without this support. The open-minded
couple, however, is probably the best thing that could happen to
the organization at this early stage. He is a committed doctor,
and she a marketing expert who speaks Indonesian. Only with the
arrival of both of them did the locals start to understand and
accept the Surf-Aid program, which before seemed to be just one
of the many theoretical, but never realized concepts of foreign
organizations dropping by on the Mentawais.

In a short time, Gordon, better known as dokter Ben, has built
up a great reputation. People come all the way from the forest to
get treatment for gastritis. Some even believe he has a magical
touch.

"Sometimes people simulate some aches, just to see what we
will do," Amanda Gordon said.

Although the indigenous people still follow animist traditions
and medicine men's healing methods, they are very curious to know
more about medicine from the Westerners who look so much younger
than themselves.

It's a great chance also for the Australian doctor to learn a
lot about traditional medicine. "If you don't know the indigenous
language and the story of the patient, you have to rely on
something in between body language and instinct. So I learned
here to trust my feelings, a very liberating experience for me."

More information: www.surfaidinternational.org

-- Christina Schott