By Chevon Adriaans (YES 2018-19, Suriname, hosted by AIFS/AYA in Scio, NY)

Last month, I held my first project focused on women and girls’ empowerment. This was a self defense workshop for girls between the ages of 16 and 25 years. The reason behind choosing girls in that age group is because they are, unfortunately, the most affected by acts of violence such as rape, kidnapping, and domestic abuse. By teaching them some self defense moves, we hope that these young women can save themselves from a dangerous situation and can defend themselves. 

We organized this workshop with the help of a group of taekwondo instructors who demonstrated various self defense moves. Afterwards, the workshop participants practiced these moves and we had a demonstration from all participants at the end. 

I am really proud to say that our first project was a big success with more than 30 participants. These participants showed a lot of interest and there is interest for another workshop which we hope to conduct in the near future!