Ethiopia Skate is a youth skateboard movement grown on the streets of Addis Ababa since 2013. They have a vision of connecting Ethiopian skateboarders with the worldwide community and coordinate opportunities for foreign skaters to link up with locals at skate spots around the country.
A country, famous for their world class athletes and most recently a home for a Nobel Peace prize winner, Ethiopia is also a homeland for a multitalented young people. Over this spring/summer season 2020, Vivobarefoot will release a series of blogs to tell their stories to inspire a world with less padding and more feeling and to build a global community of health and wellbeing activists, movers and shakers challenging the status quo, active urbanites playing outdoors, thriving through Vivobarefoot’s ethics of peace and environmentalism.
Meet and greet Ethiopia Skate, a grassroots community of skateboarders working to empower young people and promote access to skateboarding. Formed in 2013 by Sean Stromsoe and Abenezer Temesgen, the community now consists of over 150 skateboarders in Addis Ababa and other small towns across the country, swiftly becoming a center for the continent’s skateboarding scene.
Sean Stromsoe, originally from California, is a photographer and documentary filmmaker. He documents all the storytelling assets for Ethiopia as he has been a regular visitor at the skate sessions and during his over numerous trips to Ethiopia, he brought dozens of boards for the community.
Abenezer Temesgen is passionate skateboarder and has singlehandedly taught an entire neighborhood of kids how to skateboard. He is a driving force behind the whole movement and the voice of their first video Message to the World.
In 2016 Ethiopia Skate constructed first and only public skatepark in the capital city, building another skatepark in Hawassa in 2017 with vision to mentor the next generation of X-Games champions. Building a skatepark first and foremost, provides a safe space for practicing, as Ethiopia has one of the highest road fatality rates in the world. It also create safe community space to enjoy and socialize.
Ethiopia Skate exists with the support of countless people from around the globe. As Vivobarefoot has a production line in Ethiopia, Vivobarefoot team traveling to Ethiopia brought over recycled skateboards from the UK and supported the skaters with locally made Vivo shoes.
Ethiopia Skate is a community organization in Ethiopia and a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in USA.
- If you would like to make a donation, follow the link http://www.ethiopiaskate.org/donate. All donations are tax deductible.
- Follow for Ethiopia Skate Instagram for inspiration stories and images https://www.instagram.com/ethiopiaskate
- Contact Ethiopia Skate if you are interested in volunteering or donating goods or services at contact@ethiopiaskate.org
Source: Vivobarefoot