On October 14th we held a SOLD OUT event for the very first screening of the Oscar-winning documentary ‘Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl)’ in Belgium!

With more than 150 people attending the Kinograph, located in Brussels, we discovered the heartwarming – and heartbreaking – documentary that follows a class of girls at Skateistan, a nonprofit that began as a skate school in Kabul in 2007 and grew into a multinational educational initiative.

Skateistan, our oldest NGO partner, focuses on recruiting girls from impoverished neighborhoods to not only teach them to skateboard, but to help them gain courage and life skills that will transcend skateboarding and the classroom to help them thrive and adapt to the challenges that lie ahead. Over the course of the school year, the girls grow and become empowered through the joy of skateboarding and the warmth and inspiration of the women who teach them.

The documentary screening was followed by a panel discussion. A huge thank you goes out to our passionate guest speakers Oliver Percovich and Talia Kaufman from Skateistan and Christo Velkov from Special Olympics Eurasia for being there with us, as well as our guest of Honor, His Excellency Dr. Nazifullah Salarzai, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Belgium, the European Nation and NATO.

On behalf of the entire team at THE SKATEROOM, we also thank you for joining us and taking part in our ‘Art for Social Impact’ movement. It was such a privilege to have you with us to witness such a moving documentary and discover the essential work of our partners at Skateistan.

Let’s keep making an impact together, one board at a time.

If you missed it, you can always watch the trailer from the Oscar-winning documentary ‘Learning To Skateboard In A War Zone (If You’re A Girl)’ from the director Carol Dysinger and producer Elena Andreicheva.

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