Skateistan launches “Safe to Skate” campaign

Skateistan, an award-winning international NGO which combines skateboarding with creative education to empower children, launched a fundraising campaign today which will help them to include even more children in their innovative programs. The campaign is called “Safe to Skate” and focuses on how Skateistan’s Skate Schools provide a haven for children where they feel safe to skate, learn and play.

“Safe to Skate” launches today with a special short film and will run until the end of the year. The campaign features four current Skateistan students, who tell the story of safety at Skateistan through their personal experiences. One of the students featured is Safiullah, who lives in an internally displaced people’s camp in Afghanistan. Her education had been disrupted by conflict in the region and she was out of school. Through Skateistan, she was able to catch up on her education and return to formal schooling.

Through this campaign, Skateistan is aiming to broaden the conversation around the meaning of safety, with a series of short videos of prominent skateboarders and ambassadors for the organization reflecting on what “safe to skate” means to them. This series was kicked off by Vanessa Torres on the first day of the campaign.

Skateistan Founder and Executive Director Oliver Percovich said of the campaign, “Safety is something that’s easy to take for granted. Through ‘Safe to Skate’ we want to highlight the different ways that Skateistan helps children to feel safe, not only by providing a safe physical environment, but by surrounding our students with staff members that they can trust, and by giving them space to express themselves without fear or judgement. Life for many of our students can feel insecure, even dangerous. Often, Skateistan is the only place where they can truly feel safe. We need people to support this campaign in order that our Skate Schools can continue to be safe havens for children in some of the least safe places in the world.”

You can find out more about Skateistan’s Safe to Skate campaign here.