Skateboarding Helps Bring Hope to Kids in Afghanistan

this is one of the most awesome things i've ever read and gives me a lot of hope. i really hope that things work out for these kids...

btw spread the word on this however you can; blogs, message boards, worth of mouth, zines and magazines, telling skate shops and skateboarding companies, just whatever...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/sports/othersports/26skate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Skateboarding in Afghanistan Provides a Diversion From Desolation


Afghan youth have taken to skateboarding since Oliver Percovich of Australia introduced it in Kabul.

By ADAM B. ELLICK
Published: January 25, 2009

KABUL, Afghanistan — It looked like an ordinary neighborhood playground: six children tumbling off their skateboards to the tune of laughter. But only hours before, just 20 yards away, the body of a suicide car bomber was sprawled beside a glistening pool of blood.

Afghan youth have learned to recover almost instantly from such routine violence. One person determined to inject some normalcy into their lives is Oliver Percovich. A 34-year-old from Melbourne, Australia, he plans to open this country’s first skateboarding school, Skateistan, this spring. He sees sport as a way to woo students into after-school activities like English and computer classes, which are otherwise reserved for the elite.

“Teenagers are trying to dissociate from old mentalities, and I’m their servant,” Percovich said. “If they weren’t interested, I would’ve left a long time ago.”

Now, when he pulls his motorcycle into a residential courtyard here, a dozen youngsters pounce before it comes to a stop, yanking six chipped skateboards with fading paint off the back. The children, most participating in a sport for the first time in their war-hardened lives, do not want to waste any time.

Their skateboard park is a decrepit Soviet-style concrete fountain with deep fissures. The tangle of novice skaters resembles bumper cars more than X Games.

But Percovich has raised the money needed to build an 8,600-square-foot bubble to house the nonprofit Skateistan complex, and the Kabul Parks Authority has tentatively donated land. He is still waiting for official permission to begin the project. And since a spate of kidnappings and the car bombing in late November, he has reduced his daily sessions at the fountain to once or twice a week.

Among those who look forward to his visits is Maro, an elfin 9-year-old girl who was terrified of skateboarding at first.

“It gives me courage, and once I start skating, I completely forget about my fears,” she said.

All the children spoke through an interpreter.

Maro’s glittery Mickey Mouse shirt indicated middle-class status. She stood out from the street children in muddied clothes who shared the skate space. Because the sport is so new and unusual here, Percovich said, it may help mend the nation’s deep social and ethnic divisions.

for the rest of the article, click here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/sports/othersports/26skate.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1


the foundation's website :
http://skateistan.org

shirts (expensive, sadly) :
http://www.redbubble.com/people/skateistan