Sometimes, feeling empowered means equipping yourself with lots of different tools that you need to move forward confidently in the direction of your choice. For Yemeni refugee girls living in Mogadishu, one of those tools is having the physical confidence to defend themselves.
“In the Yemeni culture, girls aren’t allowed to go outside without her brother, mother or father for fear they’ll be harassed by boy,” said Husna, one refugee girl we work with in the city.
She told us that it might help if they had some training for how to defend themselves, if it ever came to that.
We decided to hold a “self defense day,” where school girls could participate in a self-defense class and other outdoor activities.
It was a chance to help the girls feel confident when they venture outside alone, and also an opportunity to freely play – something they don’t get very often.
“I feel like a prisoner who was set free today!” said Husna. “I got to laugh, play, and be myself with new girls!”
After the session, their confidence was through the roof. Because sometimes it’s a little easier to be independent, to go outdoors on your own, when you know that if you had to, you could hold your own.
