[youtube=http://youtu.be/tIZneuwRFKg]
It’s natural to want to give back and help people. Travel experiences are so much more meaningful when you get a chance to interact with the local community and impact their lives in a positive way. When I was looking for a place to run the women’s surf and yoga retreats I wanted to partner with someone who was making a positive impact on the community. Coco Loco is the perfect place. They run a non-profit called Waves of Hope that is investing in education to teach the people how to help themselves. Those are the sorts of businesses that I want to support and you can feel good about doing the same.
For more information about Waves Of Hope, click here!
Tag: waves of hope
First Ever Coco Loco Classic by Waves of Hope
Coco Loco, Waves of Hope, and Surf With Amigas are all dedicated to improving the lives of the people in the surrounding communities. One project was the Waves of Hope Surf Club which encouraged kids to attend school everyday by offering them a Saturday Surf Club which they could only attend if their teacher signed off that they had attended class every day, turned in assignments, and were generally being good students. Through this program, kids were motivated to stay in school, but they also got a chance to learn about the ocean and learn how to surf. The only problem was that after catching your first wave, you then want your own surfboard that those are expensive and hard to come by for a poor village kid.
Other gringos in other communities have solved this problem by just giving out a bunch of boards. The problem with this strategy is that the kids then don’t appreciate the value of the boards. They also then start asking for more hand-outs. We didn’t have enough boards for all the kids and tried to come up with a way that they could earn a new board.
Enter the Coco Loco Classic – We held a contest for 11 participants on a fun day at the point. A few of them didn’t even have a surfboard to use for the competition so we let them borrow some of ours. The contest ended in a tie so we gave out two boards but everyone had a great day with a fun friendly competitive spirit.
Watch the video below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWw_ZTv_DAw&feature=relmfu]
Raising Money for a New Elementary School Classroom
Imagine you’re a 12 year old kid growing up in a remote fishing village in Northern Nicaragua. You’ve spent most of your life barefoot, chasing chickens and skinny dogs through barbed-wire fences. You learned to ride a horse at age 5 and by age 7 your dad had you herding cattle between pen and pasture. Your parents keep you busy with the chores of survival. There’s a two room school house just down the street but not much incentive to attend so you don’t know how to read.
Then one day, some gringos show up and buy land nearby. They give your uncles jobs in construction building a small eco-resort called El Coco Loco. Your mom gets hired to help out in the kitchen and your older brother scores a job as a night watchman.
Coco Loco founds a community development focused non-profit called Waves of Hope to improve the lives of the community they’ve fallen in love with. Volunteers come down from the US and Canada, girls with big smiles that spend mornings in the little school helping the one teacher that is assigned to teach three grades at once. In the afternoons they organize soccer games on the Coco Loco field, do art projects, and teach English. On Saturdays any kid that has attended classes Monday – Friday gets to borrow a surfboard and feel the joy of riding a wave.
Suddenly, there’s a lot of incentive to go to school. Attendance skyrockets. The tiny two room school house is no longer big enough.
Then Waves Of Hope announces that it will build a new school room for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. But we need your help!
The new classroom will cost $9,000 to build. You can help by donating to Waves of Hope. Every little bit helps.
Email [email protected] or [email protected] for more info on how you can make a difference and help kids go to school!
Scholars for Surfing with Waves of Hope
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3wOKFL0zLk]
Waves of Hope is a community-focused non-profit working to improve the lives of the people of Northern Nicaragua. After noticing that very few kids were attending school regularly they came up with a program to reward attendance. If a kid went to school every day of the week, on saturday he or she could go surfing! School attendance has improved dramatically!
Suave Dulce Gives Back with Waves of Hope
Nicaragua is the second poorest nation in Latin America but while the people are poor they are very friendly. While driving by, kids smile and wave. A little help goes a long way. Suave Dulce has partnered with Waves of Hope, the non-profit arm of El Coco Loco to give retreat guests a chance to interact with the local community and give back in a meaningful way.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNud3U_s7iQ]