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December 3, 2010
Skateboarding for education
Les Robertson went on a 500-kilometre trip to raise funds for Kenya.
KYLE BERGER
Jewish community member Les Robertson likes longboarding. He likes it so much that he spent last summer skateboarding across Kenya. Though he loved the journey and the exercise, the reason he rolled through Africa was to raise money and awareness for a cause close to his heart – the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business’ Africa Initiative.
The Africa Initiative developed the Social Entrepreneurship 101 program (SE101), which has delivered business-plan training to youth living in the Kibera slums and other areas of Nairobi since the summer of 2006. The training includes workshops focused on educating Kenyan youth to start their own businesses in the hopes of improving their future. Today, the workshops are run out of a temporary facility and SE101 students are working to raise the $20,000 required to make the workshops permanent, as well as spending time in Kenya facilitating and teaching.
Robertson, however, has taken the fundraising part of it downhill, so to speak – from Nairobi to Mombassa. This past summer, after completing his master’s of business administration, he was part of a team that established Skate4Kenya, a 500-kilometre journey in support of the initiative.
“Watching and working with the project over two years, I saw it was hard to raise awareness outside our UBC network, despite how amazing the work and positive impact is,” Robertson told the Independent. “I wanted to create something that could capture a wider interest by doing something unique.”
The decision to longboard across Kenya came easily.
“I just kind of said, ‘That’s where I want to go,’” he explained. “Nairobi and Mombasa are the two most well-known places in Kenya and the initiative takes place there already.
“Plus, the landscape looked like it went down in elevation instead of up, so it seems to fit,” he quipped.
Aside from skating for funds, Robertson spent time as one of the initiative’s teachers the past two summers. He plans to return in 2011 to continue his commitment to Kenya and its people.
“I want to be able to spread our message there that Westerners are not just about aid – we’re not just here to run in and run out,” he said. “We are invested in the positive growth of the nation and its people. We want global entrepreneurial citizens, not just dependents, to grow out of this.”
He got hooked on to project the first time he met some of his students.
“I saw how intelligent, eager and capable our Kenyan students were and the impact we could make in such a short time,” he said. “After my first summer, I decided I needed to stay involved, so I started working on the website and social media while I was on exchange living in Europe.”
After recently holding an information session for the 2011 team, plans are already in the works for the return to Kenya. Robertson is also working on a 24-hour relay-style event in the spring in Vancouver in order to connect the local community to the initiative’s fundraising needs.
“We have a location [for the permanent school] on hold, but no resources to supply and staff it. So as soon as we raise the [$20,000], we can get the centre started,” he explained. “We just haven’t been able to raise enough for the startup cost for the full-time Centre for Entrepreneurship.”
More information on the Africa Initiative or the Skate4Kenya fundraising project can be found online at skate4kenya.com.
Kyle Berger is a freelance writer and graphic designer living in Richmond.
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