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<\/a><\/p>\nWhile we spend the majority of our time seeing and enjoying the best on offer, there is the other side of the coin, the side that isn’t as glamourous or appealing, but a side equally worth acknowledging and experiencing. Now we aren’t the UN or any other NGO whose sole purpose\u00a0is making a lasting sustainable difference to those in need, it’s not the nature of our trip and we have our own goals to attend to, but we do frequent areas and regions working with great people who do have these ambitions, who are passionate about it and where and when we can help, we do.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Many hands make light work \ud83d\ude09<\/p><\/div>\n
So we call it ‘responsible travel’, the nature of give and take and the notion that doing good makes you feel good and can actually make a difference too. It also offers people on our trips chance to see a more rounded South Africa and get to experience a variety of cultures and communities, after all we are one of the most culturally diverse countries on the planet.<\/p>\n
In Cape Town we work with the wonderful people at Waves for Change<\/a> who make a huge difference to the youth from volatile\u00a0communities by offering a safe environment with access to caring adults, providing counselling through ‘Surf Therapy’ and by creating a platform for an opportunity to the youth.<\/p>\n Alice amped to get involved with some Surf Therapy<\/p><\/div>\n They recently won the prestigious Laureus Sports For Good Award<\/a>. Whilst in Cape Town we got the opportunity to partake in a Surf Therapy session after we refurbished their beach side container with a fresh\u00a0lick of paint!<\/p>\n \u00a0The projects we work on in Jeffreys Bay are ones that are\u00a0more environmentally motivated, The Supertubes Surfing Foundation<\/a>\u00a0runs a couple of initiatives that we get involved in and during our stay we managed to get involved in two. They run a recycling initiative in a nearby township, they aim to teach kids the value of recycling and looking after their community by incentivising them. They earn ‘moola’ which is a fake currency redeemable only at the ‘store’ on site, the amount of moola they earn is dependent on the amount of recycling they bring in each week (this happens every Monday). The kids are also encouraged to save as there are a few very high valued items in this store, bikes and even surf boards can be purchased if you work hard every week to collect recycling and save for it. For most of the guys this was a real eye opener to the situations some people in the world find themselves in; for example Charlie had to help a 6 year old child\u00a0calculate what he could purchase in the store with the amount of moola he had earned that week, a kid that had probably waited in line for at least an hour just for the opportunity, and instead of the sweets or the toys Charlie had to help him decide between Toothpaste or Toilet Paper because he didn’t have enough for both (a 6 year old).<\/p>\n On another day we got our gardening gloves on and went about clearing out some alien vegetation at a local church, once we cleared out the aliens we went to the Supertubes Surfing Foundations nursery and collected some indigenous vegetation (the famous Aloe Vera, amongst many others) to replant at the church. A few local kids even decided to help us out.<\/p>\n These are a few of the projects we have got involved in on this trip specifically, but it does vary from trip to trip as there are a few other initiatives we usually get involved in that weren’t on the cards this time around. Regardless, it feels great giving back to the communities and places that host us so well here in South Africa.<\/p>\n Cheers \ud83d\ude42<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n