“No School, No Skateboarding!” in Chinese, by Lau Waiyiu aka Miki on the Chinese online platform BIE. Miki really manages in a good presentation to provide background information. She is digging deeper than many other journalists do. Here is a rough translation of the article into English … Rough! No school, no skateboarding! The story of a skateboarding village in India. By Miki Lau Almost everyone who has been to India has had their life changed in some way or another since then. These people include me and my friend Matjaz. Originally from Slovenia, Matjaz is a photographer now living in S ..read more

The first “SkatStatS exhibit” is ready to use! On three panels we explain six different ways of counting: the Egyptian, Babylonian, Mayan, Roman and Indian way of counting plus how computers deal with numbers. The texts are in Hindi and English and address the rural youth. The texts were written in cooperation with Rina Singh, a children book author. The idea behind this piece is that the kids learn about different perspectives on the same subject can enjoy a playful approach to learn counting and huge numbers learn the basics about each system and then advance their knowledge via worksheets ..read more

Written by Anil Kumar. Last night we had a film screening at our Villa Janwaar. “Janwaar” – a short documentary by Danny Schmidt. Gopal and Arun have helped me to set up all the technical stuff and made it run. We invited the kids and parents.They all were curious to see “Janwaar” – a documentary about Ramkesh and his mother, representing the entire village. It was recorded two years ago by Danny Schmidt. “Janwaar” was screened at the Mountainfilm in Telluride, Colorado – it was screened there in the morning so for us it was late at night. It was almost midnight …. But everyone was there and s ..read more

@Mountainfilm 2021 USA / Duration: 11 mins Directed by: Danny Schmidt In one of the largest and poorest states in India, there lies a community skate park built-in 2015. Ulrike Reinhard, the creator of this Janwaar Castle, is all about challenging the status quo and providing a safe space for kids to find their own way. Skateboarding is the ideal disruptor t the mainstream mentality for the youth of Madhya Pradesh. The castle has become a haven for the two castes in the village to interact with one another through the shared passion of skating. You can watch the documentary here ..read more

Written by Anil Kumar Satoshi has been suffering. His foot was literally falling apart and turning back and brown. This went on for seven months. I got to know about it from my father. I went to his farm three weeks ago with my father and clicked some photos and sent them to Ulrike. We see it as our job as Barefoot Skateboarders Organisation the well-being of all kids and their parents in the village …. So this is why I informed Ulrike about Satashi. We asked him if he would appreciate help and he said yes. So Ulrike organised everything and when Satoshi should finally leave – he wasn’t ready ..read more

1.5 years ago we bought more than 150 SAWYER water filters for the villagers of Janwaar. They are very happy these days to have them. The heatwave and the lack of proper drinking water (all wells are dried out in Janwaar or have only very bad quality water) transform these filters to survival kits for the families. Once again thanks to all of you who made this possible ..read more

The idea. SkateStatS is a numeracy and data literacy project – literacy on topics related to mathematics, probability and statistics – that has recently started in Janwaar. The project is endorsed by the Swiss Statistical Society (SSS) the Italian Statistical Society (SIS) and the Società degli Accademici Italiani in Svizzera (SAIS) . The SSS and SAIS also provided financial support for the project that, together with seed money received by Rotary Club Courmayeur-Valdigne, is paving the way to SkateStatS. History and background. When Ulrike Reinhard arrived in Janwaar – about 10 years ago – th ..read more

Over the last two months Pappu and his team of locals have been working hard to give the courtyards of our Villa Janwaar and the neighbouring land of the forest department a new look. After renovating what was already there and painting all the walls the first goal was to avoid the ponding of the rainwater on the ground of the courtyards. It always turns into a muddy mess during the rainy season. We leveled the ground and made a slope in the direction the water was mainly floating, made holes into the walls and channeled the water flow into the neighbouring field. Then we created a sand bed an ..read more

Today the kids went to Hinauta Gate at Panna National Park to see th elephants. I asked Asha to call me once they’ve reached. I haven’t seen the elephants for more than 2 years now – and I really, really miss them! So nice that Asha walked around the camp and showed me the animals – and Vatsala, the oldest one, was almost jumping for joy! This made my day ..read more

On 21 March Asha got a phone call from Surjeet, a friend of the Barefoot Skateboarders, in Delhi. He asked her, if she was interested in participating in an ad for IPL Royal. And to be very honest, we had no idea w hat IPL was D Cast Track, a casting company, in Delhi, was looking for a Skater girl. We discussed and shared the details in a WhatsApp group. We shared our Janwaar skateboarder photos and videos and they selected Asha. Asha was very happy! She loves acting and being in videos. Everything was very short notice and the casting team couldn’t find any trains or flights getting Asha to ..read more