Welcome to Skateistan Where Youth Empowerment Rules

In the developed world, we often equate traveling with freedom and luxury, taking vacations out of state or out of country to get away from stressors at work, home, or both. And in some ways, we’re right. Travel—any travel—really is a true luxury, especially considering many people in the world may never get a chance to go abroad. That’s especially true of children in war-ravaged countries like Afghanistan. Luckily, when Australian Oliver Percovich showed up in Kabul, Afghanistan, toting a couple of skateboards in 2007, he was insightful enough to see that travel and freedom don’t always need to correspond to geography and distance. Instead, skating around the city he noticed he could bring a sense of movement and freedom to Kabul’s children merely by sharing his boards with them. Many had never seen a skateboard before, and most of the girls whom he met hadn’t ever participated in a sport at all, but that didn’t stop them from embracing skatboarding from their first push on. Thus, Skateistan was born, becoming a registered NGO in 2009 and opening its first skate school in Kabul that same year. Now, Skateistan boasts five skate schools across the world, including a second Afghan location at Mazar-E-Sharif, two skate schools in Cambodia, and another in Johannesburg, South Africa.

 

Despite a full staff and volunteers at all of its locations, not to mention an international office based in Berlin, a cadre of donors and other volunteers, and truly enthusiastic students, some of that growth can be attributed to skateboarding itself, with its unique blend of easy access and extreme difficulty. No matter one’s skill level, skaters fall. Hard. And anyone who hopes to progress on a board quickly learns to get back up, turning heavy slams into positive learning experiences that easily translate to other areas of life. And while Skateistan teaches kids these lessons on the board, it’s also incorporated them into its extensive mission philosophy, offering core programs to children at all of its locations which focus on education, youth leadership, outreach, and creativity. Skateistan also targets the most underserved kids in these already underserved locations, focusing first on girls, children from low-income backgrounds, children with disabilities, and migrants, helping them enhance their educations, while teaching them leadership and life lessons, that will be crucial to them as they reach adulthood in the difficult places in which they live. As Skateistan kids age out of the programs, many choose to stay on as volunteers, helping further the cycle of growth and empowerment.

 

And it’s just this empowerment that Skateistan values most. As Kelly Murray, ripping skater and Programs Officer at Skateistan’s Johannesburg location notes, “It was the fact it [Skateistan] was improving kids’ lives directly and it caught my eye that a focus was girls. I had been trying for so long to build something and encourage more female participation, so I felt this was the way to get girls excited about skateboarding and to build a community of girl skaters here in South Africa.”

 

While Skateistan remains a truly grassroots organization, it’s also attracted big name supporters in the skate world, including pros like Tony Hawk, Paul Rodriguez, and Erik Ellington, not to mention Zero Skateboards, which created special co-branded boards to benefit the organization.

 

So, when you plan your next global jaunt, you might keep the kids and citizens of Skateistan in mind. Because while the privileged among us can access travel and freedom on demand, some kids in other places need a little help, bringing movement and freedom to them in the form of skateboards. Thankfully, Skateistan offers volunteer opportunities at its global office in Berlin, while also giving interested parties a chance to volunteer from home. Check it out. It just might change your mind on the meaning of travel after all.

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If you liked this story, check out more in our Urban Transplants issue.

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