Kokoda Youth Foundation
Who we are
Kokoda Youth Foundation's Story
2004
The Kokoda Youth Foundation (KYF) was established on the Gold Coast in 2004 by Doug Henderson and his wife Anna. Their dream was to create a locally operated charity to support Australian youth in local communities. Doug had served as a Medic in the Vietnam War and was invited to attend an RSL conference some time after. There he heard from a Kokoda veteran who spoke about the Kokoda Campaign in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Campaign during WWII. Doug was profoundly impacted by the story of Kokoda and what happened there and made it his goal to help educate and spread awareness of the 1942 Kokoda Campaign. Around that time, there was a significant rise in troubled young people across Australia. Doug saw that he could use the story of Kokoda and it's values of courage, endurance, mateship and sacrifice to help these young people... so that's exactly what he did.
2005
In 2005, Doug began his mission by taking a group of 12 young people to Papua New Guinea to hike the challenging 96km Kokoda Track. He believed it would be a transformative experience that would help these young people appreciate their nation's history and veterans' sacrifices. To prepare for the gruelling Kokoda Track, these teens would have to train together every week with dedication and resilience. After this peak trekking experience, the group of ‘Kokoda Kids’ would complete three months of volunteering in their local community, instilling a greater sense of service, sacrifice and an attitude that would help them into the future. These combined experiences became the foundational model for the Kokoda Challenge Youth Program. To help fund the program, Doug and Anna ran the first the Kokoda Challenge event, where members of the community would hike in teams while raising funds for the Foundation.
2007
The Kokoda Challenge had been running for two years and team numbers were growing. The Foundation introduced the Stan Bisset Cup to the fastest 96km Gold Coast Kokoda Challenge school team. This award is named after Australian rugby union player and Kokoda Veteran, Stan Bisset, who served in the 2/14th Battalion.
2008
The Kokoda Challenge Youth Program (KCYP) expanded from just one Gold Coast program to a KCYP in both Brisbane and Canberra as well. This meant that the Kokoda Challenge endurance event had to become bigger to fund the two new programs!
2009
In order to reach more people and make the Story of Kokoda accessible to even more people, the Kokoda Challenge introduced the 48km event to run alongside the 96km event on the Gold Coast. This saw a huge increase in the number of participants and was able to raise even more funds for the Kokoda Youth Foundation.
2010
The Kokoda Challenge event was held in Melbourne for the first time, meaning next year the Kokoda Challenge Youth Program would be able to help local Melbourne communities and young people. This was also the year that a Kokoda Kid with vision impairment from the Gold Coast KCYP completed the local 96km event which was a true inspiration for everyone involved.
2011
Although the Kokoda Challenge Youth Program had been running in Brisbane for three years, this was the first year the Kokoda Challenge had been held in Brisbane to raise funds for the local branch of KCYP.
There were now six branches of the KCYP - Tweed Coast, Gold Coast, Logan, Brisbane, Canberra and for the first time, Melbourne!
2012
This year saw the birth of Camp Kokoda, an outdoor education facility in Maroon, QLD. This property began hosting school and holiday camps where kids could experience adventure-based activities designed to build teamwork and push them out of their comfort zone. This year we also launched our first On The Right Track program, aimed at helping disengaged young people stay in the education system.
2013
This year the Kokoda Youth Foundation held an endurance event of a different kind! Kokoda Grunt was a mud and obstacle course held at Camp Kokoda which involved conquering a variety of mud-soaked challenges in teams.
2014
We introduced the first Kokoda Challenge event in Toowoomba this year and also received government funding to run the new Isurava Youth Program. This was a pilot program that ran for two years that was aimed at early intervention for crime prevention among youth.
2016
This year saw a record-breaking number of entries in the Kokoda Challenge endurance events with over 1,300 competitors participating in our 96km events alone! The funds raised from the events meant even more local young people could be impacted through our youth programs.
2020
This was the first year ever that we were unable to run the Kokoda Challenge events due to the Covid 19 pandemic. However, we were able to hold the Kokoda Virtual Challenge where competitors tracked walks around their neighbourhood online and still raised money through donations for the Kokoda Youth Foundation.
The pandemic didn’t slow us down and we created the Kokoda Pathways Program aimed at reducing the chance of young people falling into systemic unemployment. We also opened a new outdoor education facility, Kokoda Park, in the foothills of Mount Beau Brummell, QLD.
2021
The Kokoda Challenge Youth Program kids were unable to travel to PNG for their Peak Experience so they embarked on a historical trekking experience in far North Queensland. It was our first year of two sold-out Kokoda Challenge events in Brisbane and Gold where we raised record fundraising for our youth programs.
2022
The Kokoda Challenge was held in the Sunshine Coast for the first time. During this year, we also introduced the Digital Detox Program as a short but impactful camp helping young teens combat the impacts of technology, during the school holidays.
2023
The Kokoda Challenge was held in Lake Macquarie for the first time. This was also the year that Kokoda Youth Foundation purchased the Kokoda Park property and the year that the first Digital Detox Program was run on the Sunshine Coast.
2024
The Gold Coast event sold out for the 4th consecutive year and over 4,400 school students participated in Kokoda Challenge events. The Foundation ran Kokoda Challenge Youth Programs in Brisbane and Gold Coast, as well as four On the Right Track programs and four Digital Detox Programs.
2025
We celebrated 20 years of Kokoda with a Gala Ball, community picnic, and our first Kokoda Challenge in Sydney. We supported a record 200 Kokoda Kids through our youth programs and had 8,800 participants across our Kokoda Challenge events. We also launched the Isurava Regional Reset Program, and received the 2025 Gold Coast Excellence Award for Education.
Spreading Awareness Of The Kokoda Campaign
Kokoda Youth Foundation’s goal is not only to help kids in our local community, but also to honour the Australian soldiers that fought for our freedom in Papua New Guinea during WWII and to spread awareness to more Australians about this story and legacy.
The heroic defense of Australia against imminent invasion and the spirit of our young soldiers demonstrates that when we work together, look out for each other, and show commitment to a task, things that at first seem impossible, suddenly become achievable.
The Spirit of Kokoda instills the values of Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice into the community of today. These timeless Kokoda values still have a profound impact on our ‘Kokoda Kids’ and we believe they are the basis of a strong and flourishing community.
The Kokoda Values
COURAGE
To step outside your comfort zone and stand up for what's important.
ENDURANCE
To stay the course, commit to the journey, and never give up.
MATESHIP
To act with integrity, embrace diversity and have each other's back.
SACRIFICE
To serve a cause greater than yourself.
The Kokoda Challenge Charity Events
The Spirit of Kokoda demonstrates that when we work together, look out for each other, and show commitment to a task, things that at first seem impossible suddenly become achievable.
In order to fund this youth program, Doug and his wife held the first Kokoda Challenge event in 2005.
The 96 kilometre endurance event gave teams 39 hours to complete over 4,000 metres of elevation through the Gold Coast Hinterland, quickly earning it the title of Australia’s toughest team endurance event.
Initially held solely on the Gold Coast, each team raised money through fundraising efforts that would then fund the Kokoda Challenge Youth Program. The Kokoda Youth Foundation has now grown from this single youth program and event to a range of youth programs, events and camps around Australia.
These annual endurance hiking and trail running events have been held for the last 20 years including a Kokoda Virtual Challenge during the pandemic of 2020, raising funds to help put our ‘Kokoda Kids’ through any of our four youth programs.
Kokoda Outdoor Education
In 2012, The Kokoda Youth Foundation opened Camp Kokoda, an outdoor education facility in Maroon, QLD which hosts school and holiday camps where kids engage in adventure based activities designed to build teamwork and push them out of their comfort zone.
Incorporating onsite activities, and expedition experiences away from the distractions of technology and modern conveniences, each program at Camp Kokoda is designed to be fun and meaningful.
In 2020 we also opened a new outdoor education facility, Kokoda Park, in the foothills of Mount Beau Brummell, QLD.
Sitting on 160 acres of amazing bushland, Kokoda Park provides first class outdoor activities such as rock climbing wall, high ropes and flying fox. By providing exposure to thrilling, challenging and thoughtful activities, Kokoda Park camps allow students to grow and develop skills through situations they wouldn’t find in a classroom.
Woven throughout our outdoor education facilities is the timeless ideology of Kokoda Spirit – Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice– and the life-enhancing values derived from the stories of the Kokoda Track in World War II.
These two outdoor education facilities help us fund our youth programs and also provide the perfect locations for hosting components of our experiential programs.
We need Your Help
Over the last 20 years, the Kokoda Youth Foundation has proudly supported more than 800 teenagers through our youth programs. We have seen huge life transformations, not just in the form of physical fitness but in the kids’ mental health, community contributions, sense of purpose, and social connections.
Our experiential youth programs help young people gain physical and mental resilience, confidence, and instill in them Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice.
Everything we do is for the good of the kids and we would love for you to join us in making a difference in young lives through the Spirit of Kokoda. These programs are run solely from donations from generous Australians, just like you.
About
Our People
The Kokoda Youth Foundation is a locally operated charity that has proudly supported Australian young people and their local communities for 20 years. Our experiential youth programs help young people increase their physical and mental resilience, confidence, and instil the Kokoda values of Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice through the story of the Kokoda Campaign in 1942. These programs are offered free of charge, thanks to the generosity of our supporters.
