Take a look at your skateboard. Bet you’ve never seen it as a powerful tool for social change, have you?
But the truth is skateboarding has allowed the world-renowned NGO Skateistan to reach at-risk young people in places like Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. Through innovative social programmes built around skateboarding, they’ve helped thousands of young people to learn, become role models and find a positive community in which to grow, skate and just have fun.
Skateistan have huge ambitions for 2016 and they need your help to make them happen. To help fund two new projects and allow them to grow their reach to over 2,000 young people worldwide, they’re hoping to raise $100,000 in December 2015.
For the first time, you can help them reach their goal by taking a more active role in the project and becoming a ‘Citizen of Skateistan’ with monthly donations. To find out more, check out the video above, edited by filmmaker Ty Evans, and featuring Skateistan’s community of students and staff, alongside skaters Tony Hawk, Jamie Thomas, and Mimi Knoop.
“Skateboarding brings people together because it is the great equaliser,” explains pro skateboarder and Skateistan Ambassador, Tony Hawk. “You have no advantage given your background, your economics or your location. It’s more about; here is a skateboard, what can you do with it?”
Learn more about Skateistan.
Latest on Huck
The party starters fighting to revive Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival
Free the Stones! delves into the vibrant community that reignites Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival, a celebration suppressed for nearly four decades.
Written by: Laura Witucka
Hypnotic Scenes of 90s London Nightlife
Legendary photographer Eddie Otchere looks back at this epic chapter of the capital’s story in new photobook ‘Metalheadz, Blue Note London 1994–1996’
Written by: Miss Rosen
The White Pube: “Artists are skint, knackered and sharing the same 20 quid”
We caught up with the two art rebels to chat about their journey, playing the game that they hate, and why anarchism might be the solution to all of art’s (and the wider world’s) problems.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The Chinese youth movement ditching big cities for the coast
In ’Fissure of a Sweetdream’ photographer Jialin Yan documents the growing number of Chinese young people turning their backs on careerist grind in favour of a slower pace of life on Hainan Island.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The LGBT Travellers fundraising for survival
This Christmas, Traveller Pride are raising money to continue supporting LGBT Travellers (used inclusively) across the country through the festive season and on into next year, here’s how you can support them.
Written by: Percy Henderson
The fight to save Bristol’s radical heart
As the city’s Turbo Island comes under threat activists and community members are rallying round to try and stop the tide of gentrification.
Written by: Ruby Conway