The Shangilia association is offering street children a home in an orphanage, provides them with an education and a decent life. The orphanage is on the edge of Nairobi, in the Kangemi slum. The aim is to carefully restore the children's self-esteem with acrobatics, music and sports.

But the need for places for children rejected by society is growing continuously. Therefore Shangilia started to build a new home with an integrated school. Together with “Shangilia Deutschland” and the Dirk Nowitzki Association we could realize the wish for the first Skatepark in Kenya. In October of 2013 the multifunctional leisure facility was opened, not only with the possibility to skate, but also to play basketball.

The "Skateboarding Society of Kenya“ has been dedicated to skateboarding since a long time and was highly involved into the building of the park. The local skaters were involved from a very beginning – they planned the park together with the German architect and build it in cooperation with the skate-aid supporters Ali Krick and Christian Petzold from Germany.
In addition the Kenyan Skaters will lead the skateboard training and provide programs for leisure activities. The first step is taken: Since November 2013 the weekly skateboard training for the younger ones is part of their class schedule. Currently the skatepark and basketball court is used regularly by about 200 children from the orphanage and many more from the surrounding slums. They can not only play and use their energy on the Shangilia grounds, but they also find somebody to talk to and, as the case may be, might be admitted to the orphanage.

UPDATE:

This year, after a long time, we visited Kenya and the skate park we built in 2013 again and talked to many locals. Especially for our project manager Gabu it was a joyful reunion because he was in Nairobi during his voluntary service in 2015. Together we made new plans and are on the way to found skate-aid Kenya to further support the local scene and maybe build another skate park in Kenya.