Welcome to the Kandui Foundation

The Kandui Foundation is an Indonesian non-profit organization which focuses on helping the people of the Mentawai Islands. Located on the edge of civilization, in one of the most remote places on earth, are the chain of 70 islands or so that we call the Mentawais. Largely ignored by the world until the early 90's, only the discovery of world class surf focused western eyes onto the archipelago. Surfers then came to the islands by the thousands, but the vast majority came in charter boats and never set foot on land. While most of them experienced the magic of the Mentawaiian waves, very few saw what goes on behind the waves, on the shore, where native people have lived for thousands of years.  It wasn't until the mid 2000's, with the building of resorts on land, did Mentawaiians have much contact with Western Civilization and vice versa.

Kandui Resort was one of the first to build a resort in the Mentawais, starting the building in 2004 and opening our doors in 2006.  We've struggled on many levels, to survive as a business, to survive as a partnership, and to understand and bridge Western and Mentawaiian cultures. During these many years we've seen disturbing things here, many unnecessary deaths and unnecessary hardships. And throughout our own hardships it's always been our goal that we would one day form a foundation to help the Mentawaiian community that we have so fallen in love with.  Finally, in late 2023, with Covid behind us, we did just that. Our partner and the director of Kandui Resort, local Mentawaiian Anom "Un" Surheri, got the ball rolling and the Kandui Cares Foundation is now up and running. It's been a learning experience for all of us to run a foundation, for sure, and things are far from perfect, but we are helping people and that is what it's all about.
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Seeing just a minimal amount of money keeping people from decent medical help or the chance at higher education is just unexceptable to us, so we are trying to do something about it. We mainly focus on two programs, our Medical Financial Assistance and our Educational Financial Assistance programs. Other programs such as trash management and assistance with farming and fishing get some attention as well, but lack of funds create a difficult environment for us to do much. Check below for details about our programs.