Kitintale Skate Park, Uganda

My great friend, the journalist Nicolette Gibson and her twin sister the photographer Cassi Gibson were headed back to Uganda recently, where they have a house. If you’ve seen The Last King of Scotland you can actually see their crib in a couple of shots. Anyway, before she bounced, Nicki told me about the Kitintale Skate Park in Kampala and put me down to their blog, the Uganda Skateboard Union. Buggin on how incredible of a thing this was, I asked her if she would go there and write something for me about it. She and Cassi rolled through and what follows is Nicki’s note to me along with Cassi’s unbelievable pictures. If you have a means, support this park!

Shael Shwartz from South Africa started Kitintale Skate Park with his right hand man Jackson Mubiru from Uganda. However Shael left shortly after the launch of the skate park and Jack is now the director of the Uganda Skateboard Union. Kitintale Skate Park in Kampala district has been around for a little over three years now. The number of kids skating from the initiation of the skate park were thirty, today there are little over fifty kids skating. This is great news, however, nothing is ever easy and with the rise in number of kids interested in skating there is lack of gear, skateboards, and most of all the kids are in need of a bigger and better skate park. Despite the setbacks, there are a few good donations that come along every so often. One of the sponsors for the skate park is Birdhouse. There have been many foreign visitors at the skate park and some have donated money for the cause. This is important because the park relies solely on private donations, for now.

There is still is a lot of work to do, but Jack Mubiru remains positive. Jacks visions for the future are to have two main skate parks in Kampala, to have skate boarding in school parks, and have skating competitions annually. He hopes to achieve this within four years. The role skate boarding plays for the youth here is positive. It teaches patience, embraces solidarity, eliminates idleness and ultimately is a place where kids can just have fun and skate! We salute Jack for putting his all into this incredible project.

The Uganda Skateboard Union has also recently produced a video…see it on Radcollector.