A short visit to Syria

With 60kg (!) of skateboard stuff in his luggage, project manager Tobi made his way to Syria last week. Incidentally, this is still the only way for us to provide our workshops in Qudsaya / Damascus with the necessary material. Due to the political situation, it’s not possible to send packages to Syria or to fly directly to Syria. The entry was only achievable through Lebanon and with help of good contacts of our project partner, the SOS Children's Villages.

At the layover in Beirut, Tobi picked up our new skate-aid volunteer Nigel from New Zealand. From there they traveled by car across the border. It took 2 days of travel time, what didn’t make the trip a lot easier. The local kids were of course totally enthusiastic about the visit and the skateboards, safety gear and helmets were of course very welcome too;) In addition to meetings to recap the first half of the year, to introduce changes and improvements, the skate park was visited, an apartment for the volunteers was sought and the budget for 2020 was decided. This year there will be temporarily two volunteers on site at the same time. The skate park is also a popular place outside of the workshops, where one can meet, skate and play together. Many parents are often there on site too. The kids are looking forward to the new workshops and our volunteers are very passionate and fully motivated too ... now 2020 can come!