In October 1999, New Zealand physician and surfer Dr Dave Jenkins went on a surf charter to the Mentawai Islands, off Indonesia’s Sumatran coast, to have a break from his job as the educational director of a multinational health organisation in Singapore.

Dave had studied medicine at the University of Otago and, before buying a rural practice in the Bay of Plenty, had interned at Gisborne and done postdoctoral work in Taranaki. His interest in education eventually led to the Singapore job.

But the trip to the isolated Mentawai Islands, 150 kilometres (95 miles) off Sumatra’s west coast, proved to be life-changing. The surf was everything Dr Dave had hoped for but he also found the Mentawai people - mostly women and children - suffering and dying from the ravages of malaria and other preventable diseases.

Dave founded SurfAid International, a non-profit, community development organization that runs water and sanitation, disaster preparedness and relief, and community health programs in the islands off Sumatra.

In 2007, SurfAid won the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO) humanitarian award.

SurfAid’s website is: www.surfaidinternational.org

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