Last month, we were stoked to see the opening of Zambia’s new state-of-the-art skatepark, a project we funded with a grant of $9,000. Headed up by 21 year old Johnny K – the oldest and founding member of the We Skate Mongu organisation – this skatepark has, in the weeks since its unveiling, become an incredible asset to the kids in the country’s Western Province, welcoming 1,500 young boys and girls in its opening weekend alone.
You can read our interview with Johnny K here.

We’ve followed the story closely, as is our commitment to the projects we work with. But we wanted an eye on the ground, a chance to document the experiences of the local and international volunteers on the build. So we decided to send some disposable cameras their way, to see what happened day to day while constructing Mongu’s park. We expected dusty construction sites and tired, sweaty faces. Instead, we got a series of images showing those precious first days – the local kids gathering around the skatepark, wheels touching fresh concrete, the smiles, the games – in short, the birth of a new scene. This is what it looks like, when the flowers of a community bloom anew. 

A big thanks to volunteers Seppe @seppeplasman & Jonas @jonascamps for taking the cameras out to Zambia (and bringing them back again), and to We Skate Mongu, Wonders Around the World, Skate World Better, and all the locals for helping make this skatepark a reality.