Riding their way to equality: Inside the Afghan skateboarding school where 40 percent of pupils are females carving a new path for their genderA non-profit in war ravaged Afghanistan that pairs skateboarding with education initiatives boasts an unlikely student body made up of 40 percent girls.
One of the world's poorest and most conservative countries seems a strange place to set up a skateboarding school, but the Australian founders of Skateistan who built it from small-time project to award-winning international NGO, say it has proved a remarkably successful way to reach out to marginalized children, particularly girls.
Women can't ride bicycles in Afghanistan, but skateboarding is novel enough to be open to women and has attracted them in droves to the Kabul school where classes are free, and at the back of the skating section are neat changing areas and classrooms where children can study everything from basic literacy to advanced computing when they put down their boards and take off their helmets.
Founder Oliver Percovich started out with just three skateboards and a dream in 2007, but has since made Kabul his permanent home and dedicated his life to Skateistan, which now also has an arm in Cambodia.
Six days per week, the 5248 square meter facility right next to the Afghan National Olympic Stadium opens as a safe, controlled place for Kabul's children to play and learn and the innovative program has attracted government contributions from Norway, Germany, Denmark and Canada.
Innovative: Skateistan started in 2007 ago in a dried-up fountain in the heart of the Afghan capital, when two Australians with three skateboards started teaching a small group of fascinated kids
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