Skateistan - Skating in Afghanistan

Eine internationale Gruppe von Skateboard Profis hat ein Projekt ins Leben gerufen, um Kindern in Afghanistan Skateboaring beizubringen. Sie versuchen mit dem Projekt Skateistan gemischte Gruppen, Jungs und Mädels, was in diesem Land nicht ganz so einfach ist, auch in anderen Bereichen zu unterrichten, wie Sprachen, IT und Gesundheitswesen. Gestern hat das Projekt eine Spende in Höhe von 64 000 US$ vom Roskilde Festival in Dänemark erhalten.

Demnächst wird es einen Fim über das Projekt geben, hier schon mal der Trailer dazu, stay tuned :-)


Skateistan from POP Magazine on Vimeo.


Skateistan is an international project, supportiung kids in Kabul. Yesterday they received a $ 64 000 donation from Roskilde festival.

Skateboarding in Afghanistan?

Absolutely. As soon as Australian skateboarders Oliver Percovich and Sharna Nolan dropped their boards in Kabul, they were surrounded by the eager faces of children of all ages who wanted to be shown how to skate. Stretching out the three boards they had brought with them, they developed a small skate school.

A group of Afghan friends (aged 18-22) who were naturals at skateboarding shared the three boards and quickly progressed in their new favourite sport—and so skateboarding hit Afghanistan. The founders’ success with their first students prompted them to think bigger: by bringing more boards back to Kabul and establishing an indoor skateboarding venue, they would be able to teach many more youth, and also be able to hold separate classes for girls.

Skateistan has emerged as Afghanistan’s first skateboarding school, and is dedicated to teaching both male and female students. We aim to build indoor and outdoor skateboarding facilities in which Afghan youth can come together to skateboard: here, they forge bonds that transcend social barriers. Here, they’re enabled to affect change on issues that are important to them.

UPDATE: For those, who like to support the project, all shirt sales will be donated to Skateistan: http://www.blackape.de/collections/skateistan (I took the green one :-)

via nerdcore.