Fundraiser to grow surfing lessons for refugees

Daniela, 17, from El Salvador, said she was proud to be trying new things

A fundraising campaign has been launched to extend surfing lessons for young female refugees.

Yonder Surf Academy in North Tyneside has been running surfing sessions for children and teenage refugees in Tynemouth, where they are "free to play and be kids".

Daniela, 17, from El Salvador, said the classes were "amazing" and that she wanted to "try new things" when she came to the country.

The academy wants to raise £17,000 to buy equipment and help more people access classes.

Daniela said she was nervous at first because she could not swim, but now she loved it.

"It made me feel like a fish," she said. "When I came to this country I wanted to try new things - and look at these new things I've tried."

Yonder Surf Academy founder Sally Mcgee said surfing had therapeutic benefits

Sally McGee, Yonder Surf Academy’s founder, started the fundraiser and said weekly sessions would help the women and girls build friendships.

"You can't really think about anything that's happening at home, or work-life, or anything that's happening in their country at home, because they're just fully immersed in the nature, the wind, and the waves," she said.

The fundraiser will help up to eight refugee girls at a time access the surf, skate and sea swimming sessions over the course of a year

The free sessions have been organised by the charity Action Foundation.

Project manager of Action Foundation’s Young Lives project, Bridget Stratford MBE, said the sessions were "brilliant".

Ms Stratford said: "Having an opportunity to come down and do something that's completely different, where they get to have fun, just be children, and get all the issues out that they're dealing with on a day to day basis, is great.

"As soon as you get into the sea, you tend to forget everything else."