PEOPLE – Self-defense training to prevent conflicts in Roma families

Dobsina (Dobšiná, Slovakia). The Carpathian Foundation has started offering self-defense classes in Slovakia to help Roma women take care of themselves, improve their community, and land decent jobs. The AZAD Foundation’s successful Women with Wheels initiative in India served as the model for the Slovakian UPre Ženy project. Around 15 Roma women participated in the first practical and theoretical instruction that lasted for over two days in Dobsina. As the course’s founder told us earlier, the project, which has been successful in India, is first and foremost about changing the mindset of women to find their inner strength, to understand that they are capable of making their own choices, that they can learn, work and make a difference to themselves and their families. “It’s important for women to understand that the imaginary boundaries set by society are not only boundaries that they can cross, but that they must cross them. And because AZAD has been perfecting this program for years and the results are amazing, we thought we could use a lot of it here in Slovakia. Women from marginalized Roma communities face similar challenges and problems as Indian women. Their discrimination is really extreme – they are women, Roma, […]