Aussie-Kiwi aid group wins top award
An aid organisation run by Australian and New Zealand surfers, has won international recognition.
New Zealand doctor Dave Jenkins set up SurfAid International in 2000 to help Indonesians after visiting the surfers' paradise in the Mentawai Islands and finding local children were dying close to where western tourists were surfing.
The former Auckland GP and university lecturer runs the relief agency from the western Sumatran city of Padang, helping 70,000 islanders battle the diarrhoea, chest infections and malaria that kill as many as one in three children.
The organisation won the 2007 Humanitarian Award at the World Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (WANGO) awards ceremony held in Toronto on Saturday.
"This is like a world title but better because it's your peers who have chosen you," Jenkins said.
"They know better than anyone else how tough it is, how dangerous it is, and how much determination you need to start and grow an effective non-profit without being a billionaire or having any significant backers."
The WANGO awards committee said it was impressed with the compassion of SurfAid and its remarkable and successful effort to address the dire health situation of the Mentawai people, with their high childhood mortality, the ravages of malaria, poor education and poverty.
The Australian government's overseas aid program AusAID has partnered with SurfAid to provide disaster assistance in Indonesia after several big earthquakes in recent years, including the devastating Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.
AusAID has praised the surfing doctors for their local knowledge, language skills and core competencies in prevention and control of communicable diseases.
Topic: No matter what Aussies and Kiwi's have a culture of giving. (Read 1013 times)