‘When I catch a wave it feels like I’m flying, I’m way up above the streets, the glue and all things I want to get away from.’   Sfiso 15

Umthombo Street Children's pioneering work in Durban, South Africa was Amos Trust's Christmas appeal in 2011 but they still need our help.

Umthombo’s surf programme is the first surf school exclusively for street children and one of the first for black children in South Africa.  The children involved in the programme talk of how it has allowed them to develop their fitness and motivation, to believe in their selves and know they can achieve. Through it the children learn discipline, respect for others and find they no longer need to be dependent on sniffing glue to get through the day.

Umthombo’s social work team helps the children to deal with the extreme trauma they have experienced on the streets and works to try and reintegrate them back home or in residential care.

Last year through the surf programme and others like it, Umthombo enabled 120 children to leave the streets, providing the aftercare support for them and their families.

£10 pays for a school uniform, which children must have to return to school

£25 will pay for a home visit – a vital step in supporting a child to leave the streets

£60 will pay for a day of the surf programme for 60 children.

Join Umthombo in giving Durban’s street children a way back home.

To donate to Umthombo, visit our donations page  Please choose 'B - South Africa -Umthombo' from the drop-down menu in the 'Additional Details' section