Ethiopia Girls Skate (2024)
Over the past several years, the presence of skateboarding has slowly but surely risen among the bustling streets of Addis Ababa. For Sosina Challa, this left no question but to want to be a part of it. Watching many others take to the streets, she taught herself how to skate but noticed there wasn’t much of a space for them and other girls to be themselves. Challa decided to host the first all-girls skating session where she met Hana Beles, who goes by Bee. In the beginning, Bee says, ‘I used to go [to the skatepark] and just watch her.’ After the two met, they formed Ethiopia Girls Skate, one of the first female-only skateboarding groups in Addis.
Skateboarding has meant more to the youth and to the development of Ethiopia’s future possibilities. With this new development, it became hard at times for the girls to coexist with other skaters at the park, sometimes even getting their skateboards stolen. However, this never stopped them from doing what they love on their Saturday mornings.
Oftentimes, you can find them skating together on neighborhood streets away from the bustling traffic of Addis, teaching each other how to do new tricks or balance on their boards. It’s here where you can see the clear comfort and joy that the girls have with one another. Bezawit Girma, their lead in communications, reflects on her thoughts about working with the girls: “I love them…there’s just some feeling…interacting with the girls, and just feeling like you’re making an impact.” The time they spend together does much more than just provide a place for the girls to skate; it’s simply a place where they can hang out and enjoy one another’s company. “Just being there, interacting with the girls, laughing, it’s not even about skateboarding. Just hearing everybody’s stories…their lives outside skateboarding…their school life,” Beza says. “Seeing these girls fall and get up, laugh it off, cry it off, it’s beautiful.”
Ethiopia Girls Skate’s desire is for people not just to know that they exist, but for people to understand how important and meaningful the community is to them. Bee speaks on the importance of having others know about Ethiopia Girls Skate and why it’s important that others invest in their community. “…they know of us, but they don’t know how hard it is to have this.” Over time, the girls were able to be recognized by organizations such as UNICEF and collaborate with brands such as Grind Like a Doll. Girma speaks of her future hopes for the girls. “I just want them to have opportunities, I want them to go see the world, I want them to compete, I just want their world to be bigger than what it is now.”
Ethiopia Girls Skate is hoping to reach the world with the message and the core of what they do. Bee says that “It’s not just skateboarding; it is women empowerment, it is home, it is sisterhood, it’s breaking stereotypes, it’s beginning a new generation with freedom.