Celebrity Surf Day | Surf Emporium

The Shocking reality is that a child goes missing every five hours in South Africa, according to figures released by the South African Police Service Missing Persons Bureau for 2013. This adds up to a total of 1697 children. Fortunately, according to Missing Children South Africa’s statistics, 77% of children are found. Sadly, this still leaves us with at least 23% of the children not being located.

Trafficking in children is a global problem affecting large numbers of children. According to UNICEF and World Concern some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children begin trafficked every year. “Children and their families are often unaware of the dangers of trafficking, believing that better employment and lives lie in other countries.” For more information please visit the Missing Children SA website: www.missingchildren.org.za.

Waves for Change has developed an award winning programme that fuses elements of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Humanistic Therapy and Surfing to improve the wellbeing and emotional stability of young people who’s wellbeing has been adversely effected by violence and abuse. ‘Surf Therapy’.

The programme is delivered by trained local community members who are supervised by an inter-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals. From an initial reach of 10 children in the township of Masiphumelele, the programmme has grown to reach over 400 children, teachers and parents annually.

Waves for Change has received global recognition and has won several awards including the Beyond Sport Award for Best Sport and Health Programme in 2015.