“One day, while I was waiting for the bus next to the school fence, I saw a group of guys moving skateboards from across the street to the park next to the school. I’ve always been a social person, so I went up and asked what they are up to. They told me that they skateboard and can teach me for free. So I joined them and that was it.”
Mohammed Al Awlaqi, 18, recalls how he got introduced to the Seven Hills* skatepark team of coaches, almost eight years ago. Born to a Yemeni father and a Somali-Yemeni mother, he spent his childhood between the two contexts, navigating both cultures and eventually becoming equally fluent in Arabic and Somali. In 2018, as the Saudi-UAE led military coalition waged a brutal war on Yemen, Mohammed’s family sought refuge in Jordan alongside 10,513 other registered Yemeni refugees (UNHCR, 2025). He was only eight years old.
Initially, Mohammed was not very committed to skateboarding. Although he liked it, he was more into playing football after school. But, over the past three years, he became a regular goer to the Seven Hills skatepark, polishing his skills and physical ability that, to any observer, seems to come naturally. “I used to experience a lot of bullying while playing football with the other boys. But with skating, there is no bullying, and everyone is treated equally even with beginners. So I preferred it over football”, Mohammed reflects.
Mohammed’s confident skateboarding got him to start coaching with Seven Hills, in an attempt to pay it forward and further his own skills development. Despite the stigma that the general community pushes on the skatepark’s crowd, especially boys by labelling them “Bad Boys” that are up for nothing good, Mohammed and other regular skatepark goers were never deterred from the skatepark’s open space in the middle of the expanding urban jungle around them.
Walking up one of the seven hills of Amman with Mohammed, to meet his mother and younger sister, Sidra, he shares his decision to drop out of school and find a job to support his family. He pauses to contemplate the future and his wish to travel abroad for better opportunities. Just like any young refugee, Mohammed is just starting off his own journey. It will not be easy, but his persistent and focused attitude towards learning skateboarding tricks will surely guide him to find his own way amid the chaos.
