ESD for Ukranian women refugees in Romania.
"Safety is a Human Right" - this is the slogan of the Romanian based Sensiblu Foundation with which I have been volunteering to teach ESD to Ukranian refugees in the country.
I want to start with this slogan, because safety is the base of our Empowerment Self Defense classes. I don't care about what I look like. I don't care where I come from, where I am at right now. Safety is my right. Safety is your right. Safety is every human's right. - I say it as a lawyer, as an activist, as a woman and as an Empowerment Self Defense Instructor.
17 refugee women and girls from Ukraine participated last weekend in our ESD training in Cluj, Romania. Together with ESD instructor Tatiana Kolot, also from Ukraine, we shared ESD practical tools and skills.
Lina 57, shared with us that as a mother and a grandmother, she knows how important is to be confident and to have the energy and the strength to say no in situations when one needs it.
As it was our first training, we asked the participants for feedback on the training and how they felt about it. This is what Lina had to say: "Our teachers gave us such a great support and such an understanding that we have the power and we have the strength. We are confident that we are strong and beautiful persons in this world, that we need to love ourselves, and support ourselves and our closest people".
While this training was so new to all of them, they particularly welcomed non-physical tools (which is not expected in a Self-Defense class) and considered the training as "a very important class for everyone" according to Anastasia, who had been trained in knife combating before. We will continue with our ESD trainings in Romania, and I am committed to organise a Level 1 Instructor Training for Ukrainian refugee community leaders.
In our ESD classes we learn, laugh, share, dance, yell, and strike powerfully. Participants asked to continue the trainings and ask us to go back. Maria, from the Gender Based Violence Counselling Center in Cluj where the training took place, was impressed to see the change that ESD brought to the participants. In just a matter of hours the participants were much more confident, open to discussion, and had developed the sense of a supportive community.
This training was in the framework of the project "Provision of Specialised Support and Services to GBV Survivors".
Big thank you to all partners and donors who made this opportunity a reality. Classes are free and available to everyone so please help us by sharing this information and connect us to potential donors.
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The activity is part of the project “Provision of Specialized Support and Services to GBV Survivors” implemented by the Sensiblu Foundation in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, from January 01 to December 31, 2023. The project aims to raise awareness, prevent the emergence and reduce the risk of gender-based violence, as well as specialized support - social counseling, psychotherapy and legal counseling - for survivors of violence in Ukraine, located in Bucharest, Suceava, Constan iecta, Gala Proi, Cluj-Napoca and Râmnicu Vâlcea.
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Should you be interested to know more about the training of trainers, send a message to gentianas@esdglobalselfdefense.org
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