Cambodia

Skateistan students Skate Beyond Borders

alyssa — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 15:47:04 +0000

Skateistan students Skate Beyond Borders alyssa Wed, 11/09/2022 - 16:47

Wed, 11/09/2022 - 12:00

At Skateistan, our students inspire others and their wider communities. Our aim is to provide safe spaces for them to build a better future in which they can thrive.

Skateistan students Skate Beyond Borders.

Whether it is covid-19, a refugee crisis, or displacement from climate change, children bear the brunt of global catastrophes. Not every child gets to enjoy a full childhood, and Skateistan provides a place of safety at a very crucial time in their lives. In our latest fundraising campaign, we aim to raise a funding gap of $1.3 million by December 31 to continue expanding to new communities and providing safe spaces for children to grow and be themselves.

No matter whether it's with refugee children in Europe and the Middle East, children living with disabilities in Asia, with community groups accessing safe spaces in Latin America or at our Skate Schools in inner city South Africa, we support children to dream, play, skate and realize their full potential.

At Skateistan, our students Skate Beyond Borders.

At Skateistan, our students inspire others and their wider communities. Our aim is to provide safe spaces for them to build a better future in which they can thrive.

In August 2021, Skateistan started ‘A New Chapter’ to rebuild in Afghanistan and expand our programs to reach more children, faster. Since then, we’ve planted roots in new locations and have grown our skateboarding community to support refugee children in Lebanon, Iraq, Albania, Brussels, and Berlin with trusted adults, creative education, and safe spaces to learn and skate.

We’re rebuilding in Afghanistan. Hundreds of children participate in our signature Back-to-School program to help out-of-school children re-enter the public education system. Back-to-School students are generally from different ethnic, social, economic, and geographical backgrounds; and we prioritize girls only classes across all three locations. The students are 10 to 16 years old.

We’re so excited that we’ve met our goal for 2022! In October 2022 we officially hit our target to reach 4,500 students every week in our skateboarding and creative education programs around the world. We're now running Skateistan programs in Afghanistan, Cambodia, South Africa, Bolivia, Albania, Kenya, Belgium, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.

Our students inspire others and their wider communities. Our aim is to provide safe spaces for them to build a better future in which they can thrive.

As we continue to reach more children in communities all over the world, we need your support to keep Skateistan rolling.

How can you help?

There are lots of ways that you can support Skateistan's latest fundraising campaign.

You can support our latest fundraising campaign ‘Skate Beyond Borders’ right now!

You can also share our campaign with your friends and family through social media.

Why not host your own fundraiser? It’s super easy to ‘add fundraiser’ on Instagram and Facebook. Contact us if you’d like help to get started.

Every week we will focus on a different student that has been impacted by Skateistan programs. Watch this space for updates!

Yes

Helping young people with disabilities to feel connected: Oppa's story

jess — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 09:37:15 +0000

Helping young people with disabilities to feel connected: Oppa's story jess Tue, 02/15/2022 - 10:37

Tue, 02/15/2022 - 12:00

Oppa is 28 and lives in Phnom Penh in a children's shelter. He has autism and comes to Skateistan to help him to build skills and connect with others.

Cambodia

Oppa* is 28 and he has been raised in a children’s shelter in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He has autism and he requires a lot of support to engage with activities. He started coming to Skateistan in January 2020 where he could socialize with new people. He said, “I enjoy studying with my new friends and teachers and having fun with them.” However, when the Skate School closed, he still managed to participate in the remote programs and keep himself active.

His caregiver, who Oppa calls mom, shared the experience she had with Oppa with Skateistan educators. This is something we always try to do when we’re working in partnership so we can understand the needs of our students. This is especially important for students who have disabilities.

She said that Oppa tends to be quiet and stay isolated when he is not happy. She recalled once there was a party at the children’s shelter, where many of the children are living with disabilities. The other students were having fun, but she noticed that Oppa remained silent and went to his room. So she reached out and talked everything through with him. . She explained that when Oppa is sad, he needs a space to get his feeling back. This knowledge and experience sharing from Oppa’s caregiver was really helpful for Skateistan educators to understand his needs. When we work in a partnership like this (Oppa lives at the Action Cambodge children’s shelter), we can provide a better support system from both organizations, helping people like Oppa to develop and feel safe.

Oppa mentioned that he doesn’t like to do anything but stay alone when he is not feeling happy. However, when he is happy, he becomes friendly, active and kind. At the Skate School, Oppa even made an offer to help others and take care of younger children.

Oppa talked about what he liked to study. He enjoys doing artwork and drawing. He especially likes to draw animals and cars. He also enjoyed skating with his friends and teachers. This is great for us to know because we can then incorporate the activities he really likes into our programs.

Nevertheless, Oppa shared that at first he was so scared when he went skateboarding. He could not balance himself well when going on board. With his educators’ help, he has learned to skate step by step. He said, “Although I don’t skate well yet, I am less nervous to skate now.”

Over time, his caregiver also noticed that Oppa has become more disciplined. In the past, he struggled to control his behavior when he didn’t feel good. He tried to stay isolated and did not get involved with others. But over time, and with help from his Skateistan educators and his caregiver, this is starting to change.

Oppa has really benefited from contributing to shared projects between the organizations. One of these projects is making and selling jam. He has helped to make jams and this has even allowed him to earn some money. Oppa also did a part-time job with the company that produced bottled water. He helped with refilling the water and selling. Oppa shared that he wanted to be a shop owner in the future. He is starting to see that he can fulfill his ambitions, if he’s supported in the right way.

Through working with Oppa, Skateistan educators have also learned a lot. Oppa’s caregiver suggested that since Oppa has difficulty with his cognitive skills, lessons should involve more hands-on activities so that he can be more engaged. And recently she has noticed that our educators have provided very creative lessons that included physical activities with easy instructions to follow. This has increased Oppa’s engagement and enjoyment of the lessons.

When the Skate School was closed, Oppa was hoping to return so that he could socialize with his friends and teachers again. He said, “I can’t wait to come back to school and skate again.”

If you'd like to give more opportunities to young people like Oppa, please consider making a donation or joining the Citizens of Skateistan today.

*Oppa's name has been changed.

Yes

What Skateistan learned about remote teaching: Bella's story

jess — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 14:13:23 +0000

What Skateistan learned about remote teaching: Bella's story jess Fri, 01/14/2022 - 15:13

Fri, 01/14/2022 - 12:00

Bella is 10 and lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The long lockdowns in Cambodia have been really tough her for, but she has learned ways to cope with remote learning.

Cambodia

Bella is 10 and she lives in Phnom Penh with her parents and little brother. She started coming to Skateistan in the beginning of 2021, hoping that she can be well-equipped with good knowledge and skills. She said, “I don’t want to be illiterate and be embarrassed.” Unfortunately, the Skate School had to close because of Covid, just after Bella had started attending. As a result, Bella started learning online alongside her friends.

Bella’s father is a construction worker who earns for his family's survival while Bella’s mother works as a housekeeper. She wants her children to get a good education so that they can have a better future.

Bella shared her remote learning and experience with Skateistan. At first, Bella felt bored with learning remotely and was thinking about giving up. She could not manage to follow the lesson well because she was having internet issues and she was feeling frustrated. However, she also felt it was even more stressful to stay home without learning anything.

The Covid 19 lockdowns were lessons for all of us, and Skateistan educators worked hard to improve the online lessons as time went by. Speaking to students like Bella helped us to incorporate different elements into our online lessons, like physical energisers and little games to keep children interested. We’re always happy to keep learning and we appreciate that as a community, we’re all learning together.

A while later, Bella began to enjoy the online sessions and feel comfortable to ask for help. Bella said, “When I felt bored with the lesson, my teacher would run an activity that makes us have fun together.”

Bella recalled one activity when she was asked to make a mask out of fabric. This not only gave her the chance to enjoy her own creativity, but also showed her how she can use her skills to protect herself and others.

Bella shared about her areas of improvement after participating in our programs.

“In the past I used to make lots of noise while coming to school, but then I realized that my behaviour was making things more difficult for other students after joining Skateistan’s programs and I started to be more respectful.”

During class time Bella was somewhat passive and quiet, but then she became more active and made more new friends. Bella has learned some English, improved her Khmer literacy and mathematics, and at home, she has also managed to teach her little brother and helped him learn better.

Additionally, Bella’s mother noticed that her daughter is now able to access online learning herself.

“My child is improving her technological skills since she has learned to join online sessions.”

Bella's mother

However, Bella’s mother mentioned that remote learning is not as effective as physical learning. So, she and Bella are both happy that the Skate School has just reopened for classes.

Bella is happy that the Skate School is open again but she also knows that she can cope, in case there is another lockdown. And for us at Skateistan, we are grateful to kids like Bella, who have helped us to improve our remote lessons.

*Bella's name has been changed in accordance with our Child Protection Policy

Yes

Curriculum update: Learning to balance

jess — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 10:37:34 +0000

Curriculum update: Learning to balance jess Thu, 08/05/2021 - 12:37

Thu, 08/05/2021 - 12:00

Skateistan is all about balance. Whether that’s on a skateboard, a sense of mental wellbeing and stability or combining learning with fun times.

Over the last few months, Skate and Create students have been following our Natural Balance curriculum, which helps them understand how the natural world works and how we can find healthy balance in our own lives.

Lessons cover our own balance, like hygiene measures and virus protection, proper handwashing techniques, and healthy nutrition as well as the world around us, such as the lifecycle of plants, food chains and how to protect the environment.

Some of our students have been learning about the life cycle of honeybees and how important they are to our natural world. As Covid restrictions have meant that students cannot currently be in the Skate School, this lesson was conducted in whatsapp groups with educators. Students split up into smaller groups and role played the different stages of the honeybee’s life; from eggs to larvae, pupae and then adult bees. The students loved imagining themselves in these different stages - this helps them to see their own journey in stages too. After the class, the students turned creative and made their own illustrated versions of the lifecycle of honey bees and sent their pictures to their educators.

Over in Cambodia, students have been trying their hands at gardening. Covid lockdowns mean that our students in Phnom Penh are still learning from home, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get their hands dirty and create something beautiful! As part of their lessons on the lifecycle of plants, students have been planting seeds and nurturing them. Chilli and lemongrass have been planted and students will now care for the seeds until they mature into plants. They are really excited to see the fruits of their labor. We hope that soon they’ll be able to bring their plants into the Skate School, but for now, we are happy that their plants are brightening up their homes.

This week we were so stoked to open the doors of our Skate School in Johannesburg again. After another lockdown, students are now coming back to Skate School and getting back on their boards.

We’ve even managed to extend our programs to even younger children, through working with an Early Years partnership. Now kids as young as three can try out skateboarding in a place that feels fun and safe. We are sure their balancing skills will be second to none in no time!

If you'd like to support creative programming in our Skate Schools, please consider making a donation to Skateistan today.

Yes

Back on Board: Meet Arunny

jess — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 13:01:24 +0000

Back on Board: Meet Arunny jess Fri, 06/18/2021 - 15:01

Fri, 06/18/2021 - 12:00

Our Back on Board campaign aims to raise $125,000 to support our students as they return to Skate School. Meet Arunny, a student in Cambodia who cannot wait to get back on board once the lockdown ends.

Arunny is 12 and she lives in Phnom Penh with her mother. She started coming to Skateistan late in 2020, when the Skate School had reopened after the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Arunny’s mom worked as a housekeeper and she’s a single parent. She didn’t get the chance to attend school and she cannot read and write. Her mom alone has to pay the bills for food, accommodation and raising her kid, and she strives for her family’s survival. Arunny doesn’t attend regular school because she doesn’t have some of her official documentation. So Skateistan is the only place where she can learn, play and socialize.

During the pandemic, Arunny’s home life became tougher. Like many workers around the world, her mom lost her job which meant they had very little money coming in. As a young girl, Arunny reported that she doesn’t know how to deal with her family situation. She and her mom were just hoping the pandemic would pass quickly so her mom could return to work and Arunny could return to Skateistan.

Arunny loves Skate School and she works hard to improve her skills in the classroom. She says she feels pressure sometimes to do well because her family situation is hard. Her mom is keen for Arunny to keep studying so she can get a better job. She wants her daughter to go further than she has done.

When the lockdown began in Cambodia in March 2020, Skateistan had to close.

“It's hard for me to describe how I felt about my Skate School closure. This is the only place I could learn. In this time, my passion and enthusiasm for study have become stronger.”

Arunny

When the first lockdown ended, Arunny was happy to get back to school and keep pursuing her dreams. She joined the Dropping In program and Youth Leadership and she also joined the Global Girl Project, which aims to help girls develop their voices and leadership skills. She was excited about being with Skateistan as she’s seen her progress rapidly improve. She became a braver and stronger girl and equipped herself with basic technological knowledge like typing and accessing online learning. She always used to attend her classes and managed to help younger students in her extra hours.

Sadly, Cambodia went back into lockdown at the start of 2021 and Arunny found herself back in the same situation. Skateistan had to close its doors again and she was worried she would lose her momentum and the progress she had made.

Once again Arunny cannot socialize and meet face-to-face with her friends like before. She has been engaging with the remote programs that are offered through the Skate School. For Arunny, she is glad that she can still carry on learning but she can’t wait to get back to Skate School and attend programs in person.

“I feel excited when my skate school reopens because it allows me to gain more from my studies like participating in English and computer classes and also to socialize with my friends.”

Her mom is also keen for Arunny to get back to Skateistan. She said:

“In the past my daughter used to be shy and not confident to talk with her friends but now she has become more confident and independent to try new things on her own. She also can help teach smaller children and her friends.”

We are hoping that we’ll be able to start in-person programs in Cambodia very soon and we can’t wait to welcome Arunny and her friends once again. We’ll focus on helping students like Arunny to process what has happened during the pandemic and to voice their concerns and hopes for the future.

Can you support students like Arunny to get Back on Board?

Yes

We exceeded our global girls participation goal three months in a row!

alyssa — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 11:14:45 +0000

We exceeded our global girls participation goal three months in a row! alyssa Fri, 03/05/2021 - 12:14

Fri, 03/05/2021 - 12:00

Around half our students are girls and we strive every day to keep this at 50% or even higher.

At Skateistan, it’s always been our priority to include and encourage girls. Through skateboarding and creative education, girls at Skateistan find a way to explore their interests, develop their skills and defy society's expectations.

It’s more important than ever to ensure our students continue to have access to safe learning environments, and our staff at our Skate Schools around the world are working hard to ensure this can happen. In January, our average student weekly attendance was 2,031 with a record high of 56% girls participation. January was the third month in a row that we have exceeded our global girls participation goal, and this really comes down to the incredible hard work of our staff in each Skate School.

Around half our students are girls and we strive every day to keep this at 50% or even higher. Covid-19 has disproportionately affected some groups more than others, and girls all over the world are no exception. Girls continue to face issues related to accessing safe learning environments, and while stuck at home in lockdown, girls are now taking on more of the household chores, they’re more at risk from violence due to increased stress at home, and less likely to return to school once restrictions are lifted.

We caught up with our program officers at a few of our Skate Schools to talk about why girls participation is so important, as well as learn some of the things they do to achieve a rate of 50% girls participation or higher.

We asked our Programs Officer in Mazar-e-Sharif, Noorzai, about why it’s so important to include girls and strive for 50% girls participation.

“So it means that Skateistan is a place where students are learning equality! As most people in Afghanistan are living traditionally they don’t believe that the girls and boys have equal chances to enhance their ability in different aspects including education to make their future brighter. And in Afghanistan the boys have more chances to participate in different social activities including sports and the girls mostly stay at home to help on home tasks, so Skateistan is here to give chance for girls to participate in programs like boys.”

Noorzai, Programs Officer

Mazar-e-Sharif

In Mazar, girls continue to come to Skateistan because their parents trust us. In the past few months, Skateistan has been the only external program that our students’ parents will send their children to.

More than half of our staff worldwide are women and we believe that this is central to proving to girls that they can be whatever they dream of being. Our female educators are the real drivers of girls participation, and inspire all of the girls in our programs to be whatever they want to be.

In Phnom Penh, our Programs Officer, Sina, offered some insight into how the team has achieved their girls participation goal. He described how our students join programs that are about so much more than skateboarding, because they come to learn, make new friends, and feel brave. The team in Phnom Penh focus on their annual themes of discipline, partnership, quality and quantity to ensure that the programs they run are impactful for all students, every time they participate at the Skate School.

“They feel happy to study in Skateistan because their teachers are kind and they can make more friends. Besides, three of them, as newcomers, mentioned that before they felt scared to talk with their teachers and friends. But they have recently become more brave as they get to know more friends.”

Sina, Programs Officer

Phnom Penh

Having female role models is so important for girls. Having women in positions of leadership at Skateistan shows girls that they can also become leaders. Female educators understand the challenges that girls face, and can help them overcome these barriers from their own experience. Exceeding our global girls participation goal three months in a row is reason to celebrate! When we give girls the safe space to have fun, develop their skills and confidence, they become leaders for a better world, and a better future.

If you can, donate today to ensure that girls can continue to dream big at Skateistan!

Yes

Good news for girls: Skateistan and Be That Girl Foundation are teaming up!

jess — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 09:49:05 +0000

Good news for girls: Skateistan and Be That Girl Foundation are teaming up! jess Tue, 01/12/2021 - 10:49

Tue, 01/19/2021 - 12:00

The wheels are in motion: Skateistan and Be That Girl Foundation are teaming up to inspire and empower ever more girls to dare to determine their own future! Find out more about this new partnership and what it will mean for girls at Skateistan.

The wheels are in motion: Skateistan and Be That Girl Foundation are teaming up to inspire and empower ever more girls to dare to determine their own future! From day one at Skateistan, girls’ empowerment has been a priority. We aim for 50% girls’ participation in all our programs and every day, we aim to show girls that they can be whatever they dream of being. So we were incredibly excited recently to sign a partnership agreement with Be That Girl Foundation, whose ideas and values align with ours so closely. Be That Girl Foundation is all about allowing girls to dare to follow their dreams, and they have pledged to support us with funding for our programs for the next five years! We’ll use that funding to run and expand our existing programs and also to look into new and innovative ways that we can reach more girls who need our support.

In this post, we dig a little deeper into the partnership with the founders of our two organizations; Oliver Percovich (Skateistan) and Cornelia Gantner (Be That Girl Foundation).

How did this partnership come about?

Cornelia: Like so often, it was a series of coincidences: Although Skateistan is very well known for its work with girls, we only got to know about it through our office manager Nina who is a friend of Ollie’s. And at the same time as my film That Girl was launched at the Zurich Film Festival in September, Ollie happened to be hiking in the Swiss mountains - so I invited him to the world premiere. I still don’t know how he managed to organize a tux and swap his hiking boots for dress shoes with such little notice, but I felt this was a great example of Ollie’s legendary adaptability - and hence a great start into our partnership!

Ollie: And I was very impressed by Cornelia’s film: Given our experience with movies (Skateistan was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)), I instantly felt that we shared a common cause and values which we could build upon for the benefit of girls around the world.

Why is this partnership so exciting for Skateistan?

Ollie: Firstly this represents a really significant investment in our programs and will enable us to keep doing our work which is empowering girls around the world. And we’re also really excited that it will enable us to expand, innovate and test new ideas. We’re always looking for ways to innovate but it can be really challenging to find funders who are willing to take risks.

And how about from the other side? What made Skateistan appealing to Be That Girl Foundation?

Cornelia: Because it’s cool! ...in fact, that’s actually true: the Skateistan approach works because skateboarding is cool, so girls and boys work very hard to make it happen - and that sense of achievement then gives them the confidence to tackle their next goals. This ties in very well with the BTG Foundation Board’s belief that the key to self-determination lies in encouraging women and girls to choose their very own path and dare to - pardon the pun - do that first “ollie” in their lives ;-).

What Skateistan programs will Be That Girl Foundation support?

Ollie: First of all, I’m glad to announce that our partnership is for the long-term: we were able to sign an agreement covering the next five years which provides us with some security in an increasingly volatile world. As we agreed with Cornelia, one part of BTG’s yearly donation will contribute to covering Skateistan’s running costs which is essential for “keeping the lights on.” This stability is a really important aspect of what Skateistan represents in the lives of many of our students; a safe space where they know they will be looked after, encouraged and supported.

Cornelia: Speaking of lights: my husband and I are entrepreneurs, so in addition to supporting Skateistan’s ongoing programs, I also wanted to help Skateistan to venture out “where no NGO has gone before” - and turn on some more lights for girls in places which are difficult to reach. So the majority of our support will go towards a brand new direction, a kind of expansion kit which will allow Skateistan to quickly roll out programs in places like refugee camps or war zones where their support is needed most!

What are your expectations for the partnership going forward?

Cornelia: Our expectations are high because we got off to a great start: Ollie’s and my vision and values are a great fit, now it is all about creating reach and impact: If we manage to positively touch the lives of ever more girls in difficult to reach places in the years to come, then I will consider our partnership a great success. In my film “That Girl”, the protagonist Gladys challenges girls to “dream wildly” - that’s what Ollie and I are doing and I am confident it will work out!

Ollie: We’ve begun a really positive chapter. Now we’re excited to keep building this relationship and take things to really exciting places in the future. At the heart of everything we do is to create opportunities for our students, especially girls. This kind of stable but flexible partnership gives us a unique chance to really push our own boundaries and rise to the challenge of what today’s girls need.

We’ll keep you updated on how our partnership develops and the exciting new directions we can take because of the support from Be That Girl Foundation.

Yes

What Skateistan learned about: running remote programs during a global pandemic

alyssa — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:54:35 +0000

What Skateistan learned about: running remote programs during a global pandemic alyssa Mon, 09/21/2020 - 14:54

Mon, 09/21/2020 - 12:00

In our series ‘What Skateistan learned about’, we share stories, successes and challenges from the perspective of a non-profit organization operating in Afghanistan, South Africa and Cambodia.

As an international organization that empowers children through skateboarding and education all over the world, Covid-19 brought a whole new set of challenges to delivering programs for our students in each location. We wrote about a lot of these challenges in our post ‘Skateistan Skate Schools Respond To Covid-19’, and detailed how each Skate School has adapted to a new reality over the last few months.

To ensure learning continues for students in their homes, our teams in each location taught lesson plans over the phone, or via WhatsApp. Students were so creative with their homework, and sent it in via WhatsApp to their educators. The Covid-19 realities are different in each location, and it is difficult to reach all Skateistan students remotely as many don’t have internet access.

In South Africa, the long lockdown meant that many parents couldn’t work and this caused food insecurity. Our team in Johannesburg responded by distributing food parcels and sanitary items for girls. In Afghanistan, teams were really worried about the number of children in Internally Displaced People’s camps who were missing out on their education. So they trained up some adults in the camps who could run classes during the lockdown. These classes still had to adhere to social distancing guidelines, but meant that those children were not as isolated as they would have been, especially as most in the camps don’t have internet access. You can read more about that here. In Cambodia, many students had no internet access at home, so educators made up packs for them to collect from the Skate School. This included activities, exercise routines and guidance on hygiene.

One essential part of reopening focused on ensuring that we filled the gaps in reaching students from the first lockdown, ensuring that students without access to the internet will be able to learn alongside their peers.

Reopening Skate Schools

While programs were suspended, the teams in each location worked on plans to reopen safely. And in accordance with advice from local governments in each location, we've re-opened our doors to students and staff in all locations.

To ensure the safety of staff and students, educators are running Dropping In and Skate and Create sessions with the students while maintaining physical distance, and continuing education on Covid-19.

This time has been really challenging. But we know so much more than we did about the ways in which we can reach our students, in case something similar happens again. We don’t know if there will be another lockdown, but we have processes in place now for a range of situations in case students can’t physically come to the Skate School. We learned all of the different barriers and realities in each location to ensure that we can meet the needs of students and their families. Some of these activities include continuing to support students and their families in Johannesburg with food donations and distributions, ensuring homework packages are organized and ready for students to take home should there be another lockdown, who do not have access to the internet in their homes.

More on what we learned about: fundraising campaign during a global pandemic

Another takeaway we’d like to share, running a fundraising campaign during the Covid-19 crisis.

In June and July of this year, Skateistan ran a fundraising campaign called It’s Her Turn which focused on girls' empowerment and the importance of female role models. As a team, we weren’t sure how successful fundraising would be in the midst of a global pandemic. We learned that our supporters all over the world engaged highly with positive news stories in this time of uncertainty. Our It’s Her Turn campaign had an initial fundraising goal of $75,000, and raised just over $109,000, surpassing all of our past fundraising campaigns during the months between May-August.

We learned that additional assets that we created for the first time in this campaign, such as the creation of a photo series to share, as well as running live events through our social media channels which were successful in terms of engagement and reach for our campaign.

While the pandemic makes the world seem so dark, news about creating access to opportunities for our students was really positive for supporters, which led to high engagement and support during the campaign.

If you have the means, please consider supporting Skateistan during this time as we work to reach our most vulnerable students around the world. To stay up to date on all things Skateistan, make sure you’ve subscribed to our monthly newsletter here.

Yes

Measuring impact at Skateistan: Social Return on Investment

jess — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 12:45:22 +0000

Measuring impact at Skateistan: Social Return on Investment jess Mon, 06/29/2020 - 14:45

Mon, 06/01/2020 - 12:00

Words by Lauren

Recently, we embarked on a project to measure the social return on funds invested in Skateistan. Thanks to the efforts of three amazing volunteers, we can now calculate the social value of our programs! How do we do that? Read on!

At Skateistan we talk about ‘impact’ a lot. But what do we actually mean, and how do we measure it? The challenge is, impact is multi-dimensional and there are lots of ways to understand, analyse and communicate it. But essentially we want to know what sort of difference and how much of a difference we are making. Over the past few years we worked with three volunteers who rose to this challenge and explored a unique way of looking at impact. We are very excited to show you what they found.

It’s called ‘Social Return on Investment.' What, you say? Yes, it’s a mouthful. So we shortened it to SROI. SROI is a measurement tool that helps organizations to understand and to tell the story of how social, economic and environmental value is being created by their programs. Social values are translated into monetary values so that a ratio for return on investment can be calculated. For example, an investment of $1 USD could deliver $X USD of social value. But SROI is primarily about value, rather than money. The process requires careful consideration of all levels of all program operations, from the planning of activities to their execution and evaluation.

“What I enjoy about the project is the story that it tells, SROI is not only a number, it tells the story of change.”

Elisa

Skateistan Volunteer

“I was never able to visit the skate schools in Afghanistan, but this project helped to paint a pretty clear picture of what it may be like. I got to learn things about Afghanistan, the children attending the skate schools, and the teachers making it all happen. Learning about each child’s story and seeing what they value about the program really helped to build a strong connection with what I was doing, hence why it was such an enjoyable (but challenging) process.”

Zach

Skateistan Volunteer

Our volunteers, Zach Lynn, Elisa Likovic and Adèle Guinaudie, each focused on a Skate School location (Afghanistan, South Africa and Cambodia respectively) to write up a SROI report for the year 2018. Methodology was chosen from an established guide for SROI analysis developed by Social Value UK and the New Economics Foundation (Social Value UK, 2012). We were supported throughout the process by Statistical Evaluation Consultant, Samantha Chui, as well as a team of 10+ independent volunteers from ‘Statistics Without Borders’ to help us analyze and verify our data.

Below are some of the main steps followed:

Who was involved?
Identifying key stakeholders such as students, families, staff and indirect stakeholders like governments, schools, partners, and even yourselves.
How much was invested?
Identifying the monetary inputs - including in-kind donations.
What were the activities?
Understanding Skateistan’s sport and educational program activities, as well as staff training activities.
What were the changes?
Identifying major outcomes; improved wellbeing and skill development including life skills, leadership skills, and literacy/numeracy skills. As well as improved child care capacity for our staff which takes into account an improvement in employability as staff develop necessary skills to succeed and excel in the workplace. These outcomes were evidenced from qualitative and quantitative data analysis from our Skate Schools.
How did we value these changes?
Noting various assumptions and estimations from qualitative interviews with staff at our Skate Schools, and identifying suitable financial proxies to our program activities. We asked ourselves; how long will the impact last?; how much change would happen if we didn't exist?; and what services (financial proxies) can we compare our programs with?
What did we find?
Calculating the SROI ratio based on a 5-year and 10-year forecast by incorporating all of the above information.

We explored each location Skateistan works in individually, because each country’s context is very different, meaning that a comparison between them is not appropriate. For example, 2018 was the year Skateistan Cambodia moved locations and built a new Skate School, so a smaller number of programs were running than usual. In reality, the values we found are likely to be understated, given the unique nature of the services offered by our sport and educational programs. Similar services are extremely scarce and don’t necessarily offer the same quality of guidance for youth, or accessibility to such a variety of activities.

“For this project, I had to refer to various international and government databases. While I knew certain socioeconomic data would be difficult to find, I was pretty shocked to see how scarce it actually was and, when it was there, how skewed the information seemed to be. Next to this, having to read about the history of Afghanistan as well as the situation that the Afghan people live in today was hard to believe – at the same time though, it shows how valuable the skate schools truly are.”

Zach

Skateistan Volunteer

Key staff members from each Skate School were involved in the SROI process, but the analysis is not without its limitations. With more freedom in geographic locations, time and resources, more people could be involved in the valuation process. Overall, the study highlighted some lessons learned that we now want to focus more on. One of our volunteers, Elisa, explains,

“Conducting focus groups with more stakeholders, like the parents, was, for example, one of the recommendations that we made.”

Elisa

Skateistan Volunteer

“Data is empowering and can yield more accurate and efficient decision making. Quantitative analysis is a catalyst for change. Skateistan has utilized original data collection, data science, and statistics to ensure that their internal policies and external community engagement programs are transparent, reproducible, and reliable. Skateistans’ SROI models set the standard for best practices in measuring programmatic impact and social change."

Samantha Chiu

Lead Data Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton

An important lesson was about our understanding of long-term impact. Making forecasts for 5 or 10 years into the future got us thinking about how we can build on our programs and data collection system to stay connected with our students even when they leave Skateistan and graduate from high school. Many of our students have grown up to become educators at Skateistan themselves, but there’s also many unheard and untold stories out there. That’s why this year we are piloting an alumni project, supporting our graduating students to take action in their local communities.

“For me, it was a valuable process because it helps to understand the value of Skateistan’s programs in the context of kids who would not ordinarily have access to such opportunities. In South Africa, extra murals (organized activities outside of school) are often regarded as an opportunity for the privileged and are sometimes so expensive that they seem exclusionary. It’s great to know that what we offer to kids has a value that can, for better or worse, be given a monetary figure.”

Mbali

General Manager, Skateistan South Africa

We are very grateful to everyone who was involved in this research. If you are interested in reading one of our full reports on a Skate School location, please contact us at info@skateistan.org. We are in discussion about third party evaluation plans for the future, and we appreciate all constructive feedback to ensure the ongoing improvement of our impact evaluations.

“I am really grateful to have taken part and contribute to such an in-depth and important study and I believe many other organisations would benefit from it.” - Adèle,

Skateistan Volunteer

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It's Sophea's Turn

jess — Thu, 18 Jun 2020 14:27:48 +0000

It's Sophea's Turn jess Thu, 06/18/2020 - 16:27

Sun, 06/21/2020 - 12:00

Meet Sophea, who was once a student at Skateistan and is now a member of staff at Skateistan Cambodia.

Sophea is 21 years old and lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She came to Skateistan through our partner organization when she was 16 years old.

When Sophea was young, she had a hard time managing her behavior and she had no clear goal for the future. Sophea’s family didn’t know how to deal with her as a child. They felt like she did not listen to instructions and sometimes they lost hope for her. She hadn’t had access to the right education and she felt like she was always making mistakes.

“I wanted to become a social worker but I did not know where to start.”

In 2014, when Sophea was in grade 8 she started attending the Skateistan Cambodia programs. Sophea registered to take part in the Skate and Create program, and a Youth Leadership program which combines the fun and freedom of skateboarding with arts-based education on subjects like human rights, the environment, staying healthy and the importance of safety, leading events, learning about child rights and becoming a leader.

‘‘I felt happy and I was surprised when I saw skateboarding for the first time. I wanted to try but I was afraid of trying sports.”

Sophea was scared to try and get involved in case she failed. This made her act out and her behaviour was hard to manage. Her friend from high school who is now a part-time educator and former skateistan student Suyeng said:

“Sophea was annoying me back then. She was too talkative and I didn’t feel good around her.”

Initially, Skateistan staff in Phnom Penh found it very difficult to speak with her. She was so afraid to try skateboarding. But her educators never gave up supporting and motivating her and tried to motivate, encourage Sophea. They didn’t put pressure on her but they could see that she liked to watch her friends skate. So they let her watch and they talked her through each trick. After a while, she could see what she needed to do. She saw her friends can do it and that meant she could do it too.

‘‘Skateboarding made me so happy and built my confidence. I will keep learning new tricks. I don't want people around me to be disappointed in me." Sophea said.

Sophea’s role model is Tin. While Sophea was still a student at Skateistan, she noticed Tin, who was an educator at that time, and she gradually progressed to Programs Officer and is now General Manager of Skateistan Cambodia. She had also come from a difficult start in life and through Tin, Sophea started to see that things could be different.

“I want to learn from Tin in order to help me grow. Tin helps change my behavior and build my confidence.”

In 2017, Sophea started volunteering at Auscam (a partner organization which helps vulnerable girls) and also become a part-time educator at Skateistan Cambodia. She teaches and plans lessons and she does a lot of outreach, helping disadvantaged kids to get an education at Skateistan. Since then she has also graduated from Grade 12 and now has a bright future ahead of her.

“I first started from nothing and I did not do anything but Skateistan helped me build life skills and my own education.”

Suyeng, Skateistan’s part-time educator, has noticed significant changes in the girl who used to annoy her during the last four years.

“She is very patient, very supportive and very confident in herself, and I am so proud to have Sophea as a best friend.”

Sophea is now working very closely with other educators at the skatepark, helping children to succeed as she has done.

“I want to become a social worker because I want to help society, I love helping kids get more education in order to have a bright future."

Sophea

Skateistan is aiming to raise $75,000 by the end of July so that we can provide more spaces where girls like Sophea are supported, encouraged and celebrated. Donate today to show girls that they can be whatever they dream of being. It's Her Turn.

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