تصوير حسام دعنة، إعداد ونص محمد حجازي
إذا مررت بشارع الأمير محمد باتجاه وسط البلد بعد المغرب خلال الأسبوعين الماضيين، لربما صادفت مجموعة من المتزلجين يتسابقون على جانب الطريق في مشهد غير مألوف في تلك المنطقة. أولئك بعض من المتطوعين العاملين على بناء حديقة 7Hills المخصصة للتزلج بالقرب من هناك.
القائمون على المشروع كانوا قد أطلقوا حملة لجمع التبرعات على الإنترنت ونجحوا في جمع أكثر من ٢١ ألف دولار أمريكي خلال شهرين لتمويل بناء حديقة تزلّج. أمانة عمّان خصصت حديقة سمير الرفاعي الواقعة على تقاطع شارعي عرار والأمير محمد بالقرب من وسط البلد، وبدأت عملية البناء قبل أقل من أسبوعين بتعاون متطوعين من الأردن وألمانيا والدنمارك وبلجيكا والولايات المتحدة وغيرها، معظمهم قدموا إلى الأردن خصيصاً من أجل المساعدة في المشروع.
Photos by Hussam Da’ana, reporting and text by Mohammad Hijazi
If you drive through Prince Mohammad street towards downtown Amman after sunset these days, you will likely come across a group of young men on skateboards racing on the asphalt. These are some of the volunteers building the 7Hills community skatepark.
After their online crowd funding campaign raised over $21,000 in less than two months, the team behind 7Hills Skatepark began construction in the Samir Rifai park, creating a skating pool, ramps, and rails with the help of Jordanian and international volunteers who flew in especially to take part in this project.
The Greater Amman Municipality agreed to allocate the Samir Rifai park for the 7Hills project, to create a skatepark near downtown Amman accessible to young people from various parts of the city. Jordanian and international volunteers work together to build the skating pool and ramps.
Mikkjel Dolferus, 30 years old, came from Belgium and is spending 20 days in Amman to help build the 7Hills skatepark. He is a specialized skatepark builder and has previously volunteered to build one in Bolivia.
Harry Gerrard, 23, is a volunteer from England. He took part in smaller scale skatepark projects in the UK, and he recently worked on building wooden skate ramps in the West Bank, Palestine. Harry is one of the few volunteers staying in Amman after the 7Hills skatepark is done to help kids learn how to skate.
Ben Devine is a 24 year old skatepark builder from Wales living in Copenhagen. He is staying in Amman for 18 days to work on 7Hills. Ben says that the Jordanian skaters and international volunteers collaborated to create the design of the skatepark, with some improvisation throughout the construction process.
Jordanian skater and founder of Philadelphia Skateboards, Mohammed Zakaria, is part of the core team behind 7Hills.
Volunteers work on levelling concrete floors in the central skating pool.
Koen Willems, 27, from Belgium, learned to build skateparks in a DIY project in the city of Mechelen, where skaters were granted a piece of land to build a skatepark.
With few days left until the official opening of the park, everybody is putting in maximum effort, a number of Danish volunteers left but Jordanian volunteers have been showing up everyday in response to call out on social media.
Fares lives nearby and has been helping out with the construction since it started.
Sam Van Lani, 28, is a skatepark builder from Belgium. Sam and other belgian skatepark builders work most of the year on skateparks in belgium, and in winter they look for projects outside, one of them is 7Hills skatepark in Amman.
Jannis Fray is a German design student in Jordan on an exchange program. He is a longtime skater and has helped organize the fundraising event for the skatepark. This is his first time building a skatepark and he is also doing some artwork there.
Volunteers from Belgium on a cigarette break.
In the final days of construction, a number of volunteers left back to their countries. The few that are left work until very late at night and take shifts in order to finish before the scheduled opening on Saturday December 20.
