Surf for Life

In 2008, Surf for Life co-founders Alex Fang and Jonathan Sofer ventured on several surf trips to Central America. Upon returning, they decided they wanted to leave more behind in the places they visited than just some surf wax and a few stickers. They saw the apparent need for sustainable development work in these incredible destinations in order to better handle the changing social,environment, and economic landscapes that come with tourism. From here the vision for Surf for Life was born to create an organization that would bring people to far off destinations to explore a new culture, and to do something meaningful to positively impact that community.
Vava’u Youth Congress (VYC), one of Tonga National Youth Congress most active branch has been very lucky to get this support from surf for life. Starting last week five volunteer has arrived in Vava’u to build a virgin coconut oil (VCO) and vanillaprocessing facility site beside the VYC office. This facility will enable local farmers to capitalize on the year-round supply of coconuts and vanilla for export to countries like Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The new facility will also create
employment opportunities for young people that have graduated from high school.
“We are volunteer that goes different place to help a community out” said Ler Ackley one of the Surf for Life volunteer
“we think that starting out as volunteers is a good place to start. For it make u
feel good of yourself give back to different communities”. The volunteer group will be spending a week and go back to the state and another group of five will arrive every Monday to do the building until its finish. The building is schedule to finish late September or early October.