Bamyan

Celebrating International Day of Peace 2020

jess — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 10:35:03 +0000

Celebrating International Day of Peace 2020 jess Tue, 09/29/2020 - 12:35

Tue, 09/29/2020 - 12:00

What does peace mean to you? That’s a question our students have been exploring to mark this year’s International Day of Peace.

What does peace mean to you? That’s a question our students have been exploring to mark this year’s International Day of Peace.

The idea of peace carries different weight in different contexts. For our students in Afghanistan, many of whom have been directly affected by conflict, their dream of peace is a country no longer at war. In South Africa, the idea of peace may center more around finding a safe space, feeling safe within your city, or developing the skills to feel an inner calm.

In the classroom and in the skatepark, our aim is to help children explore these ideas and encourage them to express their feelings about what a peaceful world would look and feel like. Is peace a quantifiable state? Or does it only exist within us? How can we find peace if the physical environment we live in is in conflict? Here’s how students navigated these questions in Afghanistan and South Africa.

Afghanistan

In Mazar-e-Sharif, our female youth leaders are taking part in a blended learning program with Global Girl Project. To mark International Day of Peace, the girls attended a session on community mapping and how different elements of their communities affect each of them.

Some of our Back-to-School students in Mazar-e-Sharif are still attending classes in the Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camp as there is not enough space at the Skate School for all our students to keep a safe distance from each other. During the lockdown, educators from the Skate School provided training for former teachers now living in the camp, so that students would not miss out on their important lessons. In the IDP camp on Peace Day, students marked the day with a celebration (including face painting!) and each drew a beautiful image of a dove to remind them of the importance of peace.

In Bamyan, our Skate and Create students explored the idea of peace through craft. First of all they had a discussion session with Mubaraka, our Programs Officer, on what peace means and why it’s important. Then, they drew around their own hands, colored and decorated their designs and then ‘joined hands’ with each other in a giant poster of unity, demonstrating that our dreams of peace can only come true when we work together. Nice!

South Africa

Students in Johannesburg have only just restarted their programs at the Skate School due to the coronavirus lockdown. Students have been missing their friends and educators, so any lessons right now need to be focused on self-expression, energy and interaction. Educators set up a board asking ‘what does peace mean to you?’ and got the students to come and fill in their ideas.

Some didn’t want to write and just wanted to skate, so their educators captured some sweet clips of them expressing their own ideas too!

Skateistan’s creative education classes aim to help children explore their own ideas about how the future should look. If you’re in a position to do so, please make a donation today to #keepskateistanrolling and help us to inspire the next generation of leaders.

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Welcome to Bamyan!

jess — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 14:07:54 +0000

Welcome to Bamyan! jess Thu, 04/30/2020 - 16:07

Thu, 04/30/2020 - 12:00

HUGE NEWS for Skateistan fans: we have started work on our fifth Skate School in Bamyan, Afghanistan!

Bamyan

HUGE NEWS for Skateistan fans: we have started work on our fifth Skate School in Bamyan, Afghanistan!

We’re beyond stoked to let you know that work on our fifth Skate School is officially underway. Ground was broken at our incredible location in Bamyan, Central Afghanistan in late April and work will soon begin on the construction of the Skate School, which will be our third in Afghanistan. The breaking ground ceremony was attended by H.E Governor Zuhair of Bamyan Province, the Mayor of Bamyan City, the Head of the Department of Education in Bamyan and our own Skateistan Afghanistan Board Member, Fraidoon Ilham.

Up to 800 children per week will soon be able to enjoy a safe space, where they can skate, play and learn. Skateistan Bamyan will include classrooms and a state-of-the-art skatepark where hundreds of children can shred every single day!

We started to run programs in Bamyan late last year in order to introduce Skateistan and skateboarding to the city. This is the same model we followed in South Africa, which allows us to start building up relationships in the community, as well as offering children the chance to take part, before the construction is finished. Of course, right now those programs are paused due to the global pandemic, but by February this year we had around 300 children skateboarding each week. We can’t wait to get them back on their boards.

Bamyan is an incredible next step for us. It’s a city of around 100,000 people and has always been historically significant as it stands on the crossroads of the old silk routes. Now a cultural center for Afghanistan, it’s the perfect fit for our unique blend of sports and creative, arts-based education.

When we started running programs there, we asked our future students what their ideal Skate School would look like and they came up with some amazing ideas. These have formed part of our discussions with the architects on the final design.

“We’re incredibly excited to be extending the scope and reach of Skateistan’s activities in Afghanistan. This is the next step in the strategic development and expansion of Skateistan globally and we’re delighted that we’ll soon be offering Skateistan’s unique blend of skateboarding and creative education to hundreds more of the world’s most vulnerable children.”

Oliver Percovich

Founder and Executive Director, Skateistan

We’re especially grateful to the German Federal Foreign Office, who are generously funding the build of the Skate School. Big thanks also to The Skateroom, our long-term partner, who are supporting the build of the skatepark. The kids of Bamyan are going to be so stoked!

Skateistan needs your support to keep providing safe spaces and opportunities for children to fulfil their potential. If you're in a financial position to do so, please consider making a donation to Skateistan today.

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Bamyan

jess — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 10:00:56 +0000

Bamyan jess Fri, 03/13/2020 - 11:00

Bamyan is located in Central Afghanistan and has a population of around 100,000. Located on historically significant trade routes, Bamyan has always been a meeting place of cultures, architectural styles and languages. In 2017 Bamyan joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network as a Crafts and Folk Art City. The city serves as the cultural center of the Hazara people, the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Bamyan is the third city in Afghanistan where Skateistan runs programs, building on the work of our Skate Schools in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif. With just one educator and a few skateboards, we started running Outreach and Skate and Create sessions in the last quarter of 2019, with a view to establishing community links ahead of construction of our third Afghan Skate School and our fifth overall. By March 2020, we had over 250 students attending programs regularly. Construction on Skateistan Bamyan began in Spring 2020 and we hope to complete the construction by early 2021.

Kandahar
Afghanistan

Regular students

Female

Low-income background

Students living with disabilities

Off

Back-to-School

To support children through public education, Skateistan’s Back-to-School program partners with schools and services to align our students with their national curriculums. In Afghanistan, children who are out of school join our Skate School five days a week to cover three grades of public education in 11 months. Upon completing our accelerated learning program, we enroll students into public schools, usually in the 3rd or 4th grade.

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Outreach

Outside of our Skate Schools, Outreach brings Skateistan Educators to children with limited resources. We introduce new communities to skateboarding through creative activities and develop partnerships to connect young people and their families with important social services. Children are invited to register and join other weekly programs.

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