Unpacking 'Skater Girl' at YPO's Mumbai Event.
Building community one story at a time
Impacting a community in positive ways begins with dedicated individuals who challenge and persist against the status quo. There are many such individuals and stories that began their journey at the Desert Dolphin Skatepark.
Our journey as an organization began with the Desert Dolphin Skatepark which was constructed as one of the key sets for ‘SKATER GIRL’, a Netflix original international feature film.
Situated on a one-acre campus, the 14,500 square foot skatepark is Rajasthan’s first and one of India’s largest.
Hundreds of children in and around Khempur village, Rajasthan have been positively impacted by the introduction of skateboarding and come to skate on a daily basis.
Desert Dolphin is a training ground for the next generation of national and international skateboarding champions. Six local skaters that trained here represented Rajasthan at the 2020 and 2021 National Skateboarding Championship in Chandigarh, Punjab. Skateboarding became an official Olympic sport in 2021 and we look forward to host skateboarders that want to train towards competing at the Olympics in years to come.
Desert Dolphin is one of the only places in the village where kids from all backgrounds, religions, castes come together. Skating is what draws them there but the park has become a harmonious community space for these young girls and boys where they learn to work identify problems and work together on coming up with solutions.
For the youth who has witnessed alcoholism and domestic abuse, Desert Dolphin is now a safe space for them to channel their energy in pursuing new opportunities and a better life. Many aspire to bring a change in their household and now feel the confidence and hope to do so.
With our constant efforts to educate and bring awareness, the rural community surrounding the skatepark is slowly breaking the age-old barriers of patriarchy, gender bias and discrimination and giving rise to young change agents.
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