Surfing organisation helps fight against malaria

Humanitarian Organisation SurfAid International has been delivering mosquito nets and malaria education to the Mentawai Islands.

The Mentawai Islands were devastated by earthquakes last month, five months after similar quakes destroyed villages and homes.

Dr Dave Jenkins, CEO and founder of SurfAid International, spoke in a press release: "In one year, SurfAid staff have delivered 22,000 nets to 15,000 families and they have just finished working on Siberut, the remotest part of the Mentawai Islands."

According to SurfAid, 50 per cent of all families in the Mentawai Islands lose at least one child to preventable diseases and all families are affected by malaria.

The organisation has tested 11,000 children under nine years old for the malaria parasite and has a rapid diagnosis test for any child who is showing signs of a fever.

SurfAid was established six years ago when Dr Dave Jenkins visited the Mentawai islands on a surfing trip. He saw a country ravaged by malaria and other diseases and set up the non-profit organisation to help aid the suffering.

The Mentawai Islands are a chain of seventy islands of the western coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.