Impact

BOARDS & BIKES ARE MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE NOW

Image from Skateistan series by Jessica Fulford-Dobson.

by Jessica Fulford-Dobson. From Skateistan series.

How can a skateboard or a bicycle change the world? Just ask girls in Afghanistan!

Their lives are challenged their country’s current oppressive laws and policies that tremendously restrict them, keeping them from fully participating in society. They are denied education, forced to marry early, and prevented from working. And they can’t participate in sports. They are forbidden or strongly discouraged from doing even the simplest joyful things, like riding bikes.

But now, thanks to two special organizations, young Afghani girls are gaining a new sense of freedom through skateboarding and biking!

SKATEISTAN

While riding bikes is seen by the powers that be as being a sexually provocative activity, somehow, by whatever logic, skateboarding is viewed as a more acceptable sport for the female half of the Afghan population.

Skateistan, an award-winning international NGO, established Afghanistan’s first skateboarding school.

Skateboarding has now become the number-one sport among women in Afghanistan.

Skateistan’s founder, Australian skateboarder Oliver Percovich, was inspired to help Afghani girls when he visited Kabul in 2007. He made it his mission to empower youth, including, and perhaps especially, girls through skateboarding and education. His schools now serve young people in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and South Africa and helps to create new opportunities and the potential for change.

Skateistan offers 3 different free student programs that aim to educate and train its students to become better leaders.

Skateistan’s program, “Skate and Create,” offers skateboarding lessons alongside an educational arts-based curriculum. “Back to School” is an accelerated learning program. “Youth Leadership” offers leadership training.

Today, Skateistan teaches over 1,200 students globally every week. You can donate to their program here. You can apply for a volunteer position here.

JESSICA FULFORD - DOBSON

London-based photographer, Jessica Fulford-Dobson captured beautiful portraits of Skateistan’s students, using natural lighting, and simple compositions.

Fulford-Dobson’s most recent exhibition, entitled Jessica Fulford-Dobson: Skate Girls of Kabul, was held at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

One of Fulford-Dobson’s Skate Girl portraits placed 2nd in the 2014 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Skate Girls of Kabul won the Imagery Of The Year Award at the Women's Sports Trust BeAGameChanger Awards ceremony last month in London.

MOUNTAIN 2 MOUNTAIN

The bicycle has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.

— Susan B. Anthony

Shannon Galpin, a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year and the first woman to mountain bike in Afghanistan in 2009, hopes to further empower women in conflict zones through her nonprofit, Mountain2Mountain.

Strength In Numbers, one of M2M’s programs, supports and supplies the still-controversial Afghan women’s national cycling team, and organizes cycling clubs across the country, among other things.

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