Oliver Percovich blog

Oliver Percovich: It's Her Turn

jess — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:18:58 +0000

Oliver Percovich: It's Her Turn jess Wed, 07/15/2020 - 11:18

Wed, 07/15/2020 - 12:00

Oliver Percovich

Our Founder and Executive Director, Oliver Percovich, explains why our current campaign, 'It's Her Turn' is so important.

I’m a feminist. I believe in the equality of women and men and so should you.

From day one, Skateistan has also been about equality. I think this is because of where we first began. There are many striking things about Afghanistan, but for me, back in 2008, the biggest thing was the lack of women and girls taking part in public life. I simply didn’t see women or girls doing any kind of sport or leisure activity. I was shocked that there almost weren't any women driving cars or motorcycles (and women that were on motorcycles often dressed as men to be safe). But statistics also show that Afghanistan is among the worst countries to be born a girl so no surprises.

When I first skated the streets of Kabul, it definitely wasn’t with the idea of founding an NGO with equality at its center. I was simply doing what I’ve done pretty much anywhere in the world - going out and exploring a new city on my skateboard. But when kids in Kabul started to follow me around, asking to have a go, I realized that a skateboard in this context could be something powerful. And when girls started to join in, the dots joined up and I knew that I could at least try to make a small difference.

The reason that girls were able to skateboard was because skateboarding was so new in Afghanistan that it wasn’t seen as a sport. There weren’t any societal rules that said that girls couldn’t do it. But that couldn’t last forever, and when girls reached around 12 years old, they would stop coming to those informal skate sessions in the fountain in Mekroyan. For many girls in Afghanistan, once she reaches a certain age, public life is very much restricted, and there is almost no chance of doing a sport in public.

That made me realize that we needed an indoor space. A place where girls could skate without being out in public. And so Skateistan was born; an indoor Skate School with classrooms as well as a skatepark. The whole idea was based on the need to provide a safe space for girls to skate.

That’s why I’m especially excited by Skateistan’s current campaign, It’s Her Turn. This campaign is all about the way that girls become empowered; not through being given permission from men, but by being inspired by other women.

Having female role models is so important for girls. As the saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see. Having women in positions of leadership at Skateistan shows girls that they can also become leaders. All our Skate Schools are female-led and over 50% of our staff as well as our Advisory Board are women. Female educators understand the challenges that girls face, and can help them overcome these barriers from their own experience.

I’ve been stoked by the range of amazing and inspiring girls and women who are also helping to bring awareness to this campaign. Our short film features the incredible skateboarders Amar Hadid, Lucy Adams, Sarah Meurle and Helena Long. We have a photo collection of female skaters, photographed by women including Zorah Olivia, Norma Ibarra, Hannah Bailey, Raisa Abal, Olga Aguilar and Skateistan Educator, Mubaraka Muhammadi. The campaign has been shared by Sky Brown, Candy Jacobs and Jenny Jones. This army of support shows just how powerful it can be when women support other women. It’s a beautiful chain of support.

You can give the opportunity for a girl to grow into a leader at Skateistan by donating here.

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Oliver Percovich: Skate and Create Difference

jess — Fri, 15 May 2020 12:19:22 +0000

Oliver Percovich: Skate and Create Difference jess Fri, 05/15/2020 - 14:19

Fri, 05/15/2020 - 12:00

Guest post from Skateistan Founder and Executive Director, Oliver Percovich, on the importance of creativity.

Creativity has always been a huge part of Skateistan’s focus. For us, it’s not just about getting children on skateboards, it’s about giving them the space and the tools to harness their creativity. If we really want to create future leaders, we have to trust in their own creativity to come up with ideas and solutions that we have never thought of. I love the the words of Henry David Thoreau in Walden:

“The old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial.”

We have to provide opportunities for expression and outlets for children’s creativity. Instead of stifling creativity - telling children to stop asking questions or to stop questioning authority, we must encourage it so that they can solve the tricky problems that they have unfortunately inherited from us. At Skateistan, nurturing creativity happens in the skatepark and it also happens in the classroom, where we run creative, arts-based education. The idea of this is to give children an opportunity to explore issues and challenges that they may not learn about in formal school. We encourage them to come up with creative ideas around community engagement, gender discrimination and climate change.

Personally, my main creative outlet remains skateboarding. Since last week it has been possible to go skateboarding again in Berlin, Germany where I live and it was a big relief. I know that many of our students are fantasizing of skateboarding again at their local Skateistan Skate School. I hope that it is soon safe enough for us to reopen and they can have their creative playgrounds back. In many countries, creative self-expression is not always possible or easy and it is another reminder of how lucky many of us are to express ourselves so freely.

While our students are stuck at home, we have been helping them get as creative as possible through gardening, baking, doing artwork and making videos. They simply brought their Skateistan activities home with them and we are doing all we can to support them with art materials, phone calls and WhatsApp groups. On our homepage if you scroll down to “Updates from the Skate Schools” you can see in real time how many students we are reaching in each of our locations.

At Skateistan we are looking at creative ways of staying connected. We started doing Instagram live weekly on Thursdays at 6pm CET/9am PST. The week before last we were lucky enough to have Tony Hawk interview Sky Brown. It was a very sweet conversation between two of our amazing Citizens of Skateistan (are you a Citizen of Skateistan as well?). Sky had some creative questions for Tony as well which was hilarious. Missed it? Don’t miss the next one!

We have also had a number of Goodpush webinars which brings a big community of skateboarders together. We don’t always have the answers. It is much more about creating community and sharing information between us all. It’s about pooling creativity and skateboarders are by and large a creative bunch with amazing new ideas.

The creativity and innovation that the scientific community is showing to beat COVID-19 is inspiring. In times of struggle, there have often been huge leaps forward in our human capacity and it is no different now. Much smaller examples are also just as inspiring, like people finding ways to reach those who are vulnerable, people making their own masks (and for others) and placing images or messages in their windows to keep spirits up. Even small businesses have found ways to make things work in unprecedented times.

Skateistan cannot manufacture ventilators or produce testing kits, but we can keep our students and families motivated and comforted. They love hearing from us and we can often give them important health advice. We let them know they’ve not been forgotten and through channels like this, keep telling the world about what they’re doing. No-one should feel that they are too small to make a difference. I’ll leave you with the words of the scientist Jane Goodall:

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

In these challenging times, Skateistan needs your support so we can ensure that our students don't feel left behind in the crisis. If you're in a position to do so, please consider making a donation to Skateistan today.

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Oliver Percovich: Motivation Makes the Difference

jess — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 14:54:00 +0000

Oliver Percovich: Motivation Makes the Difference jess Tue, 04/28/2020 - 16:54

Tue, 04/28/2020 - 12:00

Oliver Percovich

Our Founder and Executive Director writes a guest post about the importance of finding the things which motivate each one of us. Oliver has been inspired by the teams at our Skate Schools who are determined to reach students during the pandemic.

Motivation is key, especially at a time like this when we don’t know what the future holds and all our best plans are falling through our fingers. There were many times while I lived in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2014 when I felt sapped of all energy, bad news seemingly continuously surrounding me. I was astonished how resilient Afghans were in spite of everything going wrong around them, attempting to live their lives fully and very much in the moment. That was motivating and inspiring to me. That’s actually how I’d like to live all the time.

One thing that’s really motivated me lately is seeing the enormous effort our unstoppable staff in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa have put into creating and sharing resources and support systems for our students while they can’t come to our Skate Schools.

When only a very small percentage of our students have access to the internet or even a telephone in places like Afghanistan this can be quite tricky. Where we would have visited a student’s house before to have a cup of tea and a chat with the parents, we now have to reach them in other ways, usually by phone. Skateistan Educators have been sharing accurate information about Covid-19 and how to prevent its spread and they have been checking in on families to ensure students’ physical and mental wellbeing is ok. That has been an unexpected surprise for many of the families.

Sometimes things don’t work according to plan. We arranged for donations of fresh vegetables for our students and their families in Johannesburg, but word spread about the food handout and hundreds of people ended up outside our Skate School gates almost causing a riot last Friday. But our General Manager, Mbali, found a solution and the Skateistan students’ families got their food packages safely the following day.

There has been student artwork on social distancing as well as loads of video meets, including the girls’ empowerment “This Girl Can” group in Joburg.

Another way to get motivated is to share with others. This was something I also learned from my time living in Kabul. Bottling up is not a good coping strategy. Even if it’s sharing a struggle, or a bad day, it’s better to know you're not alone. Last week, the Goodpush Alliance hosted a COVID-19 Sharing Webinar with staff from 25+ other social skateboarding projects all around the world to discuss and share on how everyone is coping with the coronavirus crisis. It was great to get ideas and inspiration from others. Here’s some things we learned:

The importance of staff looking after their own wellbeing before focusing on supporting their participants, like putting your own oxygen mask on first on an airplane.
That many of these projects provide valuable social connection and role models for the young people they serve, even when skateboarding programs can’t happen.
While different contexts affect how we can adapt our programs (for example the level of internet access participants have) we also share many common challenges and solutions.
These unique circumstances have made many organizations more open and available for collaboration, since – for the first time – this is just as easy to do across distances as it is within our own cities, and we will be able to adapt our programs more quickly if we work together.
Sharing challenges and ideas with peers is super motivating – based on positive feedback we will run another Goodpush Sharing Webinar on 30 April.

It’s these connections and examples from others that keep me motivated. After more than 12 years of programs, I'm thrilled that Skateistan has just launched its Alumni Network, a way for all of our former students to connect, inspire and support each other. This is a time when we need compassionate leaders, with their communities as their first priority. That might look very different from what we think of when someone says ‘leader.’

Our alumni are all Citizens of Skateistan – members of our global community who share our vision of creating leaders for a better world. In our Skate Schools, we’re not just teaching kids to skate – we’re allowing them to come up with creative solutions to the world’s problems. A lesson like ‘Ideal Country’ or ‘Human Rights Island’ is designed to give children permission to imagine a different future. As the world around us changes and definitions of things alter in our minds, what does a good leader look like now? What does a good citizen do? How do those people behave in a new and challenging situation like the corona pandemic?

I’m excited to find out what we’ll learn from the next generation of leaders as I’m sure they have better ideas than we have. That’s really motivating.

Skateistan needs your support so we can reach our students in these uncertain times. If you're in a financial position to do so, please consider making a donation to Skateistan today.

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Oliver Percovich: Connections in the time of corona

jess — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 12:08:00 +0000

Oliver Percovich: Connections in the time of corona jess Tue, 04/14/2020 - 14:08

Tue, 04/14/2020 - 12:00

Oliver Percovich

Guest post from Skateistan's Founder and Executive Director on the current coronavirus pandemic and how Skateistan is managing in the crisis.

Like every organization in the world, Skateistan has been trying to adjust to the challenges presented by the current coronavirus situation. It’s an unprecedented time and no one has a blueprint of how to manage it, either at a personal or an organization-wide level.

In some ways, Skateistan might be more ready than some organizations. We have Skate Schools in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa and our HQ in Berlin, so we’re used to remote meetings, patchy internet connections and the feeling of distance between colleagues. We’ve always tried to be as flexible as we can in terms of people’s working patterns - this is not the first time we’ve had a toddler on the screen in our video conference meetings!

The glaring difference however is for our students. In March we took the decision to temporarily close all our Skate Schools for the safety of our staff and students. After 11 years of continuously running programs in Kabul, it’s hard to think of the facility closed for now and the students at home. I was so proud of Skateistan being able to still operate through almost impossible situations, especially in Kabul, when many other international organisations were packing their bags and leaving when the going got tougher. We know this will only be temporary but it weighs heavy, knowing that for many students, one of the few places that they can have fun and feel safe is not available to them right now. They need Skateistan and we fight to provide our programs to them every day of the year.

Since the situation began, our programs team has been working constantly to find ways to reach our students. Once again it’s a reminder of the different ways that global events are experienced by varying groups of people. My friends here in Europe are flooded with online resources and ideas to keep kids happy (or at least entertained). For many of our students and their families, this is just not possible. Only around 10% of our students’ families in Afghanistan have access to the internet (25% in Cambodia and 60% in South Africa), so sending out resources from the Skate School to our students isn’t always an option. We’ve got a great team with plenty of energy and creativity, so we’ll find ways. But it’s an important reminder that ‘we’re all in this together’ doesn’t necessarily mean we’re experiencing the same thing.

Our early focus has been on keeping in touch with families. It’s really important that we help out in terms of passing on accurate information about virus prevention as rumours can spread very quickly and this can be dangerous. We’re also sharing tips on maintaining good mental health in challenging times. For many students, who can’t see their friends and educators, just knowing that someone is still thinking of them can be very powerful.

In South Africa, the team has added almost 100 parents to a whatsapp group so they can share ideas for keeping students entertained at home, share accurate information about the virus and its prevention, and even for parents to vent about the challenges of having kids at home in a small space. We’ve asked students in South Africa to work on a drawing of what they can see from their window. We’re hoping to involve other staff and students in this so we can all share in something common - a way of connecting when everything feels like it exists in a vacuum.

In Cambodia, our Community Educator has been calling parents to check in on students and make sure they are safe. In Afghanistan, staff have been organizing conference calls with parents to bring the community together, even in these challenging times. The team is also busily working on how resources can be distributed safely over the next few weeks.

In this time of distancing, what we’re learning more than ever is that kindness and connection are key. Reminding yourself to always ask how someone is, how their family is, and what the situation looks like for them before you jump in with a work question. Remembering that stress can manifest in unexpected ways. Considering that lockdown in one place is very different from another. Being open to learning more than you’re teaching.

We cannot wait until our Skate Schools are back open, and full of the noise of excited, happy kids. Until then, let’s hope we can all connect in a way that is kind, that lets people know that wherever they are in the world, they have not been forgotten.

I want to leave you with a story of kindness from Mazar-e-sharif in Afghanistan. Tamim, who is deaf and is a former student of Skateistan, has become a tailor. When he heard that masks were needed, he jumped into action, making over 200 face masks to distribute to people in the city who couldn’t afford them. In the photos that were provided by Noorzai (one of the original Mekroyan crew) you can see Tamim at the famous Blue Mosque in Mazar fitting the masks he made. Tamim embodies the spirit of a Citizen of Skateistan.

Skateistan needs support to keep rolling through the current coronavirus crisis. We know that many people's financial situation has been affected. If you're still able to, please consider making a donation to Skateistan today so we can continue to support our students through this challenging time.