A peek into the life of our Surfpop volunteers

In February, a new group of 9 volunteers from Europe joined us in our beloved surf town, Muizenberg. It was an eventful month for them with Surfpop!

A fair amount of time was spent in the ocean, where our surf coaches Dan and Peter introduced the volunteers to surfing and where the volunteers shared their newfound love for surfing with the Surfpop children. It was amazing to see how both the volunteers and the Surfpop children got more confident in the surf and how surfing connected them in such a beautiful way.

On land, our teacher Shaleen guided the volunteers in how to best mentor the Surfpop children in the classroom. Each volunteer was paired with one or two Surfpop children and throughout the month they assisted them with their homework, Maths and English. As tutors, our volunteers played an important role in improving the children’s school outcomes and encouraging them to become active, critical and creative thinkers: two important objectives of the Surfpop education sessions.

Next to volunteering, the volunteers discovered everything that the Cape Town peninsula has to offer: they explored Cape Point nature reserve, they hiked Table Mountain, they discovered the city center of Cape Town by visiting the Apartheid museum, Signal Hill, Camps Bay and Bakoven beach, they drove around the peninsula via the famous Chapman’s Peak drive and one of the Surfpop graduates showed the volunteers his township community, Masiphumelele.

All in all, it was an exciting and eventful month for both the Surfpop children and volunteers!