Today, in the 21st century, we are able to cure most of the diseases of the earth, but there are some that still resist us. Two of them are child poverty and machismo, of both diseases they know a lot in countries like Afghanistan, in which most of the children are born from families with limited resources to which unfortunately, if you are a girl, another one will be added disease more, machismo.
Being a girl in a country like Afghanistan means carrying a heavy mark that you have not chosen for the sole reason of the whim and the no-reason of a dominant body. Being an Afghan girl means being a "second-class citizen" and I put it in quotes because I have my doubts that they are even considered as "citizens." A girl in this country is prohibited from riding a bicycle and it is very difficult to attend school in an environment of peace and freedom. For all that, the NGO Skateistan, helps Afghan children by skateboarding, helping them to perform some exercise, to increase their interest in learning and attending school and why not, to spend some time playing without major pretensions, because they are children for a reason.
Photographer Jessica Fulford-Dobson has taken a series of photographs showing girls learning to ride a skateboard in the NGO center of Kabul.
Skateistan was founded in 2007 by Australian skateboarder Oliver Percovich, currently 50% of the students in the organization are children who work in the street, of which 40% are girls.
The objective of the organization is to help children through the practice of skateboarding so that using it as a vehicle they bring children closer to schools and why not, to that world of illusion and play to which every child is entitled .
They started operating in Afghanistan and from there they have arrived in Cambodia and South Africa.
In Skateistan they work with a variety of people, from five-year-olds to 25-year-olds.
In September 2012, 4 members of the organization were killed in a suicide attack that aimed at NATO members in Kabul, yet the mood did not suffer and they continued with the work.
