Keep Skateistan Rolling

Since 2007 we’ve rarely asked our supporters for donations but as a grassroots NGO we in fact rely on the generosity of people around the world like you to continue the work that we do. At the same time, we know how annoying it gets to be hassled on the street by some stranger with a clipboard or bombarded with guilt-inducing images, so we thought we’d make this fundraising drive all about showing you some behind-the-scenes action at Skateistan.

Over the first week of December, as a part of the “Keep Skateistan Rolling” drive, we released a new daily video, giving you a glimpse into daily life at our project sites and the amazing youth we work with. The video stories also give you an idea of how your holiday donations can impact the lives of Skateistan’s students, especially the skater girls in Afghanistan and Cambodia.

A few examples:
$10 - Transport for 10 Cambodian youth to and from Skateistan for 2 weeks
$20 – Fuel to bring 140 girls in Kabul to Skateistan each week
$50 – Management training course for one female Afghan staff member

Every donation, no matter how small, helps keep Skateistan students rolling towards new opportunities and personal empowerment. To those of you who donate even more, we love you for it and we'll put it to good use!

This year, consider making a donation in the name of your friend or family member that will give the gift of skateboarding to Afghan and Cambodian children.

How to join the campaign:

1) Take 2 minutes to support Skateistan, and make a donation right now!
2) Give the perfect Christmas gift by making a donation in the name of a friend or family member.
3) Share our posts and videos on Facebook, Twitter, and through email, or even in-person with humans!
4)Promote the campaign through your website, blog or business.

We appreciate any support you can offer!

As of December 10th, 2012, E-card and photo prizes are no longer available to new donors of the "Keep Skateistan Rolling" fundraising drive.

As a part of the initial video campaign, from December 3rd to 9th:

- Donations over $10 received a Skateistan e-card
- Donations over $20 were entered into a draw to win 1 of 10 limited edition Skateistan prints

Note: Donors must provide a valid e-mail address to receive e-card. E-cards will be sent via email on the 10th of December to the email address given. Only donations made on Crowdrise or Paypal are eligible. Prize photos will be 8”x12” or 8”x10” and only donors in North America, EU, UK are eligible.

 

Since 2007, Skateistan has opened two skateparks, creating safe spaces for more than 2000 children in Afghanistan and Cambodia to learn and play. Hundreds of youth ages 5-17 come weekly for skateboarding, creative arts workshops, and basic education.

40% of Skateistan’s students are female, and more than 50% are streetworking children.

If you believe that skateboard-based education can create positive change, show your support this holiday season by participating in our “Keep Skateistan Rolling” fundraising drive from Dec. 3rd to 9th.

To give you an idea of how your holiday donations can impact the lives of Skateistan students we are releasing a series of daily video stories throughout the week, focusing especially on the amazing skater girls we work with. These video stories will give you a glimpse into daily life at Skateistan, and demonstrate how your contributions to Skateistan positively influence the lives of young girls and boys in Afghanistan and Cambodia.

Every donation, no matter how small, helps keep Skateistan students rolling towards new opportunities and personal empowerment.

  • Donations over $10 will receive an e-card
  • Donations over $20 will be entered into a draw to win 1 of 10 limited edition Skateistan prints


Note: Donors must provide a valid e-mail address to receive e-card. Prize photos will be 8”x12” or 8”x10” and only donors in North America, EU, UK are eligible.

 

Keep Skateistan Rolling - Part 2: Back To School

In 2011 36 streetworking children graduated from Skateistan’s Back-to-School program. In 2010, Skateistan sent 29 children “Back-to-School”.

This year, 20 girls and 20 boys from a nearby refugee camp are attending Skateistan five times per week to get the education, support, and supplies they need to enrol or re-enrol into the Afghan public school system. Only 12% of Afghan women are literate (the lowest female literacy rate in the world), so for Skateistan’s female students, this program is especially important. Girls who attend the “Back-to-School” program spend 12 months learning everything they need to know for Grades 1-3, including Dari, Mathematics, and Religious studies. Back-to-School kids also eat lunch together every day at the skatepark, and spend one afternoon in the skatepark each week.

In addition to a female teacher, Skateistan employs a female Student Support Officer to not only help these children enrol in school, but also to follow their individual progress. As the contact point between Skateistan, their families, and their new public schools, Skateistan’s Student Support Officer ensures these girls and boys continue their education for years to come.



 

KSR - tuk tuk transport

After more than a year of running skate sessions and art classes with partner NGOs and in the backyard of the staff guesthouse, Skateistan Cambodia was excited to open its own co-educational skateboard and learning facility for youth in Phnom Penh in September 2012.

One of Skateistan’s main priorities since Day 1 has been to encourage long-term student participation. To ensure that some of Skateistan Cambodia’s first students are able to continue attending classes at the new skatepark, Skateistan provides transport in a local “Tuk Tuk” taxi for some of its youngest students who were with the program from Day 1. Phnom Penh, like many South-East Asian countries, has overwhelming traffic and a lack of transportation infrastructure, such as a citywide public transport system, making it difficult for pedestrians to travel safely. The girls and boys who take the Tuk Tuk ride began skating in the yard and garage of Skateistan’s guesthouse, and without transport would have no other way of safely traveling to the new park. 

The kids are all smiles after a ride in the Tuk Tuk together to the skatepark, but the fun really begins for Skateistan Cambodia’s students when they get on the boards. A regular day at the new skatepark includes two to three on-site skateboarding sessions each day, accompanied by an equal amount of creative arts or breakdancing classes. There are also some special opportunities for Skateistan students and youth leaders to participate in additional skills workshops, such as practising their musical abilities in Skateistan’s Turning Tables DJ lab.

The Cambodia transport budget also goes towards mobile skate sessions. In the early evenings, Skateistan instructors take a motorcycle, Cambodia's favourite mode of transportation, to our mini skatepark set up at a partner NGO. Here, our staff work with the volunteer skatepark monitors to supervise regular youth skate sessions. With 150 regular students (including 35% girls), and additional sessions with partner NGOs, there is a lot happening at Skateistan Cambodia with no slowing down in sight.

Every week, over 140 girls come to Skateistan’s skatepark in Kabul. Girls make up 40% of our students, and more than 50% of Skateistan’s Afghan staff are female. Providing equal access to our programming is a top priority for Skateistan.

In Afghanistan, girls and women are usually not allowed to travel alone. Due to a limited public transit system, extreme traffic congestion, and street harassment, getting around Kabul is often expensive and dangerous.

Without Skateistan’s transport for girls, most could not come to class or to work. Skateistan transport ensures that the only obstacles the girls face when they come to Skateistan is in the skatepark!

Safe transport overcomes one of many barriers that prohibit women in Afghanistan from connecting with sport, education, and employment opportunities.

 

 

KSR -  Meet Tin

Since 2008, Skateistan has provided opportunities for youth leadership through volunteer teaching positions and alternative employment to mostly streetworking youth in Kabul, Afghanistan. Building leadership opportunities for youth is crucial to establishing long term success and a sense of program ownership for our students. Since its start in 2011, Skateistan Cambodia has continued to work at this key goal for youth enrolled with Skateistan. 

Over 60 girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 21 have either worked or volunteered with Skateistan internationally as Youth Leaders, assised in skate sessions or class lessons, helping to plan and manage events, maintaining the skateparks, and taking part in special sports, arts, and multimedia workshops.

Since Skateistan first began working with youth in Phnom Penh in 2011, several young people have progressed from being students, to teachers in the skatepark and classrooms. Our Programs Assistant Tin has shown herself to be an especially talented skateboarder and an excellent teacher and role model for the students. As Skateistan Cambodia’s first female skate instructor, Tin uses her skateboarding and creative arts skills, as well as various elements of hip-hop culture, such as turntables and breakdancing, to help other girls gain new skills and improve their self confidence.

Providing leadership and development opportunities for young women in Cambodia is particularly important. Nearly the same numbers of boys and girls attend school until the age of 14 in Cambodia, but after girls reach this age fewer continue to higher education. Adult literacy rates also reflect inequality for Cambodian women, where only 70.9 percent of adult women are literate compared to 85.1 percent of men. This discrepancy results in Cambodian women being more vulnerable to poverty and discrimination.

 

 

Since 2009 Skateistan has provided alternative employment to 28 Afghan youths, most of them from streetworking backgrounds, who have progressed from being enthusiastic students to becoming teachers in the skatepark and classrooms.

Over 30 more girls and boys between the ages of 12 and 21 have volunteered with Skateistan as Youth Leaders, assisting in skate sessions or class lessons, helping to plan and manage events, and taking part in special sports, arts, and multimedia workshops.

The average age of our Afghan staff is 25 years. The average age of our Afghan teaching team is 17.5 years.

With 68% of Afghanistan’s population under the age of 25, and 50% under the age of 16, providing opportunities for youth of all backgrounds, in education, skill-building, empowerment and leadership is essential.

For young Afghan women especially, Skateistan is one of the only recreational facilities in Kabul that provides the safety and privacy required for them to have permission from their families to participate. Female teachers, free transport, and a female-friendly work environment allow Afghan girls to develop their professional experience, build confidence, and learn the necessary skills to become much-needed female role models within their communities.


 

Keep Skateistan Rolling - Part 7: International Administration

Since street skateboarding sessions began in Kabul in 2007, Skateistan has transformed rapidly. From Kabul’s first indoor skate/educational facility in 2009, to the new facility in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, opportunities for youth who attend Skateistan continue to grow. With a new facility under construction in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, Skateistan continues to expand. With this growth Skateistan has taken steps to ensure it continues to provide high quality education and sports programming to every youth involved internationally.

In the Spring of 2012, to accommodate Skateistan’s growth and to connect the management of each project site, Skateistan established a headquarters in Berlin. Every day, Skateistan staff connect with each other from three different time zones, and their work behind the scenes keeps more than 550 Skateistan students on their boards every week.

Some of the work that takes place in Skateistan’s offices internationally includes student registration and program development, organizational development, human resource management, financial management, fundraising, IT support, media and communications, and much more. Thanks in part to our International Administration network, Skateistan has reached more than 2000 children, and will continue to develop new opportunities for youth every day.

 

Keep Skateistan Rolling Thank you

 

Thank you to all of our amazing supporters for showing so much support for Skateistan during our first ever fundraising drive. After just one week of fundraising Skateistan has managed to raise more than $9730USD. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has taken the time to donate, share, promote, and show their love for Skateistan. Every little bit helps to  keep Skateistan rolling, and give our students the gifts of skateboarding, creative arts, and personal empowerment.

We hope you enjoyed the series of seven videos that we released during the week, and that you learned some new things about Skateistan and our operations. We are going to keep all of the video stories on our website until the end of December, and our Crowdrise fundraising page will be active until then aswell. That means there is still time to get involved in the Keep Skateistan Rolling drive, and become one of the many people who share our vision of bringing children together through skateboarding!

If you would like to hold a fundraiser for Skateistan by collecting donations at a holiday party, or having a donation made to Skateistan instead of gifts, please feel free to email info@skateistan.org for more information.

To say thank you to our donors, we will be sending out e-cards December 10th to the e-mail address provided with a $10+ donation, and prize photos on December 11th to the postal address provided with the $20+ donation.  

A big thank you again to everyone who participated so far and already made this drive a huge success!