A Trip To El Salvador
My name is Sylven van den Boogaart manager of Groundswell Aid.
Together we can share and inspire each other as a community - here’s how my trip to El Salvador went.
Groundswell Aid
Groundswell Aid is an organisation with a mission to mobilise positive change through surfing. It is an international organisation that currently supports 7 projects, three in South Africa, one in Mauritius, One in Rote Island Indonesia, one in chile, and one in El Salvador.
One of our goals is to grow our network to benefit projects such as La Red, which is doing incredible work in local communities.
In October, I travelled from Holland to El Salvador to collaborate with an outstanding non-governmental organization named La Red. This organisation serves several beach communities in the El Tunco area through different programs. Since 2019, Groundswell Aid has been working actively with La Red.
During the past few years, we’ve been able to extend financial assistance to La Red during the challenging times of the covid-19 pandemic and tropical storms. We’ve also established partnerships to fulfil La Red's needs for sports equipment, such as providing them with new surfboards. Currently, we are working on an education fund that will benefit their current education programs.
During my visit to El Salvador, we worked in the communities, undertaking a host of activities.
Together with La Red’s team I participated in construction work, installed water filters to provide families with better living conditions, distributed food parcels, and took part in their education programs where they teach English, music, and computer skills.
La Red’s educational program helps the community big time because it develops their skill to benefit from the growing tourism in coastal towns like El Tunco.
La Red also runs a surf program called "Sharing Waves." It was delightful to teach the kids how to surf and impart positive life skills while having a ton of fun. Surfing provides an excellent medium for young people to escape street life and develop important character-building skills.
Working with La Red was a fantastic experience, and I felt honoured to be part of their incredible work after years of collaborative partnership.
