Photographer Yann Gross documented the very first skate park ever built in East Africa.

My pictures tell the story of the first Ugandan skateboarders, who built a skate park themselves in Kitintale, a working-class suburb of Kampala. Through skateboarding and without government help or support by any organisation, the teenagers of Kitintale have managed to ward off boredom and the negative effects caused by the poverty of their daily lives. When they are on their “Fantasy Island,” which is their skate park and their pride and joy, the skateboarders are not far from paradise: they feel freedom and a sense of community which allows them to dream and have prospects for the future.

The teenagers of Kitintale have developed their own identity, and the older ones use this sport as a means of communication within their community to transmit values such as respect and solidarity. They also tackle other daily problems, which many Ugandans suffer from, such as HIV and malaria.

[via We Find Wildness]