Skateistan — A bit about us
We are an award-winning non-profit organization which empowers children through skateboarding and education. By combining skateboarding with creative, arts-based education, we give children the opportunity to become leaders for a better world. Our focus is on groups who are often excluded from sports and educational opportunities, especially girls, children living with disabilities and those from low-income backgrounds. We provide safe spaces where children can have fun, build their skills and confidence and break down social barriers by making new friends.
Our programs provide opportunities to children aged 5–17, especially girls (over 50% of our students), children from low socio-economic backgrounds, and children living with disabilities. In doing so, we provide access to creative arts-based education and valuable life skills that go beyond the skatepark and classroom. programs combine life-skills with fun, freedom and creativity to help create leaders for a better world. Skateistan also runs The Goodpush Alliance, a global platform which supports other social skateboarding projects to develop and thrive. Select the program icons below to find out more.
In August 2021, we suspended our programs in Afghanistan for the first time since 2009, when we first opened the doors of our Skate School in Kabul. Now our future in Afghanistan is uncertain. This is a chance for us to begin A New Chapter. We always intended to increase the number of our Skate Schools but now we’re thinking differently about how we can be more agile and reach more children faster. We want to rebuild, to expand and take the joy of skateboarding further afield.
Start a fundraising campaign for Skateistan today!
A donation would help our New Chapter to grow and evolve while also allowing us to keep supporting the children of Afghanistan in any way that we can. Our aim is to expand to 20 locations over the next year, and reach 4,500 students each week. It sounds ambitious, but we’ve never been scared of a challenge. And the great news is, we’ve already begun! We have already started new projects with partners in Jordan, Bolivia, South Africa and Kenya. As well as working with refugees in the U.S., Belgium and Albania, in addition to our long-standing Skate Schools in Cambodia and Johannesburg. We want to take the seed that was planted in Afghanistan around the world and reach as many children as possible.
In Cambodia and South Africa we have Skate Schools — physical spaces which include classrooms and a skatepark where children can play and learn. In Kenya, Jordan and Bolivia we do not have a physical space, but we run programs in partnership with other projects in public or hired spaces. We run a range of programs for all ages, but all children will experience skateboarding tuition as well as creative education. We focus on helping children to express themselves and their ideas freely and creatively and we encourage them to see themselves as changemakers for a better world. Lessons include human rights, protecting the environment and developing community. It’s completely free for children aged 5–17 to attend our programs.
Here’s a few examples of the positive and far-reaching impacts that a single donation can have:
- $10 can allow a child at Skateistan to attend a session of our flagship Skate and Create program so they can enjoy skateboarding and explore creativity.
- $20 can provide a week’s worth of supplies for our creative, arts-based education activities in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
- $50 can pay for a child who has been displaced by conflict to attend a week of our Back-to-School program in Afghanistan, including transport, a healthy meal and learning supplies.
- $100 can provide Skateistan’s Skate School in Johannesburg with a month’s worth of electricity, keeping the lights, computers and heating on.
As you can see, a donation will go towards helping the many children in many places who need safe spaces, trustworthy adults and the opportunity to learn and express themselves. Donate today to help keep Skateistan rolling!
Additional helpful links:
- Learn more about Skateistan
- Start fundraising for Skateistan
- Download the Overlays
- Install the Charity Alerts into Streamlabs Desktop
- Add the Charity Alerts into other Broadcasting software
