Amman: Hair flying in the wind Manar, Amniya and Farida hurtle down the slopes of “7Hills Skate Park” in the Jordanian capital Amman where refugee children come to play.
The 650-square-metre concrete space was built in December 2014 by skateboard enthusiasts from around the world.
Mohammad Douma, a 40-year-old Sudanese man who fled the war in Darfur, looks on with pride and a touch of apprehension as his two daughters, aged four and eight, learn to ride a skateboard with their trainer.
“We come here every Monday. Life in Jordan is very expensive, it’s the only place where I can take my girls to play and have fun for free,” said Douma.
Salima Eisa, a 26-year-old housewife, sits on a patch of grass with her two-year-old son, who is busy nibbling on crackers.
She watches as her son Mohammad, four, and eight-year-old daughter Amniya cruise by on their skateboards.
Eisa too fled Darfur, where the conflict that broke out in 2003 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of others.
“This park has become a breath of fresh air for young refugees from Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Palestine,” said Mohammad Zakaria, one of the park managers.
Skateboarding “is a difficult sport, which allows you to gain self-confidence and learn that falling is not the end of the world, and that you have to try a second and third time to succeed,” he explained.
He said around 140 boys and girls take free classes every week, mostly run by foreign volunteers.
Yousuf Khalid, 14, who lost his father in Somalia’s war, arrived six years ago with his mother and sister, and does not miss an opportunity to come to the skate park.
“This place makes me forget that I’m a refugee,” he said, showing off his latest trick on the skateboard.