Home
Ethiopia’s first skatepark builds community and breaks down economic barriers
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/ethiopia%E2%80%99s-first-skatepark-builds-community-and-breaks-down-economic-barriers
Share
 
The URL has been copied
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/ethiopia%E2%80%99s-first-skatepark-builds-community-and-breaks-down-economic-barriers
Share
 
The URL has been copied
On any given day, you can find dozens of young kids, from all neighborhoods and socio-economic backgrounds, skating up and down the ramps of Ethiopia’s first skatepark.

The large skatepark stretches to about 625 square meters, and offers a public and free-of-charge communal space for local and visiting skateboarders that was previously lacking in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

“Everyone comes together here,” says Sean Stromsoe, co-founder of Ethiopia Skate, the organization that oversees the park. “So a lot of friendships are created that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.” The kids at the park are not only discovering a new sense of community, but a passion, and talent, for skating.

“They are so fearless,” says Sean, “They found a different purpose in skateboarding, and as an organisation we’re trying to help guide that. And these kids are just diving right into it, it’s really cool.” The staff provide incentive opportunities to help the kids eventually own their own gear, by working around the park and training other skaters.

And while the park enjoys notoriety around Ethiopia, and parts of Africa, funding it and building it took some trial, error and collaboration across many years. What started as a bunch of kids skating around a vacant parking lot, grew to become a local community of hundreds of young skaters that come together through their passion of skateboarding.

The skatepark was born from the grassroots initiatives and collaboration of two groups passionate about community and skating: Ethiopia Skate and Make Life Skate Life.

To make it happen, Ethiopia Skate, under an enthusiastic group of volunteers, kicked off an ambitious Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to get the money for the costly construction. With a goal of $60,000, they only raised $14,900. “The mistake we made is, we did the flex funding,” Sean says. “We didn’t raise enough to build a skate park at all. We left with some money — so we ended up building some ramps and smaller scale stuff.”

Taking one step closer to their dream park, the team decided to focus on building community momentum and awareness. They made ties with local community organisers and began to build their social following. Through these efforts, their project appeared on Anthony Bourdain’s show, CNN and Vice.

Then, an international non-profit organisation called Make Life Skate Life reached out to them. Make Life Skate Life works with local skateboarding communities around the world to construct community-built concrete skateparks. Their projects have been successful through local community involvement from start to finish, providing local skateboarders with the tools, materials, knowledge, and inspiration to create their own projects.

Tags

Country
Ethiopia
Sport
Skateboarding

Related Articles

Certification Ceremony from Batch 2 of Level 1: Introduction to S4D

PSD completes the first and second batches of Level 1: Introduction to S4D

Pro Sport Development
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/psd-completes-first-and-second-batches-level-1-introduction-s4d
 
The URL has been copied
Taekwondo students in a Brazilian favela

Sports Spark Hope in Rio's Communities at UN "GameChangers" Side Event

Jadir Taekwondo Association
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/sports-spark-hope-rios-communities-un-gamechangers-side-event
 
The URL has been copied
FFH

Football for Humanity named recipient of UN-powered Sport for One Humanity award

Christopher Thomas
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/football-humanity-named-recipient-un-powered-sport-one-humanity-award
 
The URL has been copied
gfp

Generations For Peace USA announces new Peacebuilding Academy benefitting five Chicago and DC area youth sport organizations

https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/generations-peace-usa-announces-new-peacebuilding-academy-benefitting-five-chicago-and
 
The URL has been copied