Boxgirls International: Courage Wins!

Boxgirls International improves girls' strength and resilience and helps them to better negotiate the urban environment through providing boxing and self defense training.

Boxgirls train as a team to face individual challenges alone.

The skills they learn in the ring bring them further in their schooling, family and career.

Boxgirls International links innovative projects in Berlin and Nairobi using boxing as a catalyst for social change for women and girls. We plan to include programmes from to Capetown and Hanoi in 2009-2010.

Boxgirls Nairobi creates sporting opportunities for girls and young women in the disadvantaged areas of Nairobi Eastlands.

Girls workout together to become friends, become strong, become aware of the hazards that face them and prepare to fight them together. There is a lack of sporting opportunity for girls in sprawling slums around Nairobi and a daily threat of violence. Unemployment, early pregnancy and lack of school opportunity shape the girls' reality. Boxgirls Nairobi Eastlands was founded by girls in 2007 who wanted to fight for a better future for their community.

Boxing and running provide useful structured activities to teach the girls self-confidence, discipline, teamwork and self defense skills. The girls learn coaching skills and have the chance to take part in conflict resolution and communications training. Activities with partners provide general health, HIV/AIDS and domestic violence education.

Young women who have been in the programme for the last year took part in a coaching workshop to prepare them for phase two of the project working with younger girls aged 8 to 12 in the outlying informal settlements of Nairobi. We are also starting on an income generation programme through offering business boxing workshops, personal training as well as operating a web cafe to provide the girls with marketable skills.

www.boxgirls.org
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