“From Kabul to the World: the power of skateboarding”

As the sport of skateboarding makes its way to the Olympics for the first time at Tokyo 2020, a lot of has been brewing in the skating world. Starting with three skateboards and hope, Skateistan has been empowering children for the past 12 years. From the streets of Kabul, they have now successfully set up skate schools in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Combining skateboarding with creative, arts-based education, they give “children the opportunity to become leaders for a better world.”

But the purpose of Skateistan goes beyond these spaces. Through the Goodpush Alliance, for example, they are creating an ecosystem of knowledge-sharing and supporting other skate-based social projects. The purpose is to create a global network of support that addresses numerous different issues through online and offline platforms. But how can the skateboard transform lives? How can alliances like Goodpush translate to other contexts and be used as a promising practice for the sports community at large? Find out in our next TALK – part of the “Sport for Development” series in partnership with Yunus Sports Hub and sportanddev – as we bring to you a TALK with Oliver Percovich, the Founder of Skateistan.

Oh, and if you want to know more about them, they are also the subject of a BAFTA and Oscar-winning documentary Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl).