I remember your organization from last year. Thank you for entering again this year. I was curious about your US plans for expanding into the Seattel market. What types of partnerships are you seeking in order to roll out plans in the US market? Are they vastly different that the networks you've established elsewhere?
Hi -
Yes we had lots of fun on changemakers last year and we are excited to be back. Lots of progress in the last 9 months since the contest ended. We have hosted a coaching workshop in Nairobi and CNN International was at our gym to report on our programmes. We have met with women's boxing clubs in Toronto and secured seed funding for a project in SOuth AFrica. We have continued our prtnership with Women Win and are looking forward to expanding into the US. We are looking for women boxers and womens boxing clubs to join us providing excellent training for girls and women in our cities and also holding events to raise money for girls in even more disadvantgaed areas. Since we have been on CNN a lot of people have been in touch with interest which is great. We are also very happy with all the support we have from Nike in the form of know how and network. Perhaps we should run some boxing workshops in Beaverton - how do you think that will go over?
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hey Heather,
I think it would be a great program here - I just told a friend about your organization. She participates in a boxing group here and I imagine she'd be very interested in looking at the opportunities to use boxing to support girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. Compared to Seattle, Beaverton probably doesn't have the same level of resources and because you've had high visibilty from CNN, you probably won't have much trouble identifying partners that would want to work with you. I'll ask her because she might have some great insights about where she thinks a great boxing community has already been established.
Hi Yve,
thanks for your interest in Boxgirls. We were having so much fun with Boxgirls in Germany and had built such a strong team of trainers in Berlin that we wanted to help other womens' clubs learn from our experience and benefit from our know how. We also wanted to apply what we had learned to other contexts and meet new boxers. We had difficulties establishing our programme in Berlin and now it is thriving. We wanted to support people get over the difficult start up phase. I love what amateur boxing has done for me and for so many other girls and women (decreased stress, strong body, feeling secure in the city, dealing with aggression) I wanted to share it in the wider community.
Thanks for your question.
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
I am curious to know the state of the boxing industry since the increased attention to MMA fighting. Has that changed the lanscape for what you do in any way?
I know you focus on the social aspect of bringing these women to together but I am curious to know how the boxing associations/clubs are responding to your program.
PS: I think your organisation is genious in the way in can individually empower women. Love the Youtube videos, really brings it into persepective.
Hi Stu -
Thanks! We also love the videos, they were fun to make and were good also for the girls and women who made them to understand the process and how TV reporting works.
I dont like MMA, I don't particularly like professional boxing. I like light cntact box training for girls, who can develop into full contact competitive amateur (controlled environment, safety equipment) boxing if they want and once they have the skills. Many fight fans like MMA for its no hold barred approach. I like boxing for its tension between rules, technique and boxing skills. I am more a boxing fan than a fight fan. The leadership of international olympic/amateur boxing need to rethink how they position boxing. I do not see a lot of new ideas from them. We are redefining the sport as something that requires a cool head, fast feet and a big heart.
All the best from Berlin
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi cameron,This is interesting and I think it is important to involve womens in different sporting codes,so my question?How do you do to get girls for boxing and do you take them for check up before they start becoz I believe there is a lot of complication when it comes to the ring or stage.
Dear Nqabisa
Thanks for your question and congrats on your work for women and sport on the Cape. Girls come to us to box. Many girls just like the idea of learning self defense, being trained by other women, and doing something"different" from the regular sports they are offered. Some girls' parents aren't so keen on the idea of their daughter boxing to start (!) but then we invite them and they get to know us and the training and some of the most sceptical parents are now our biggest supporters.
Girls who want to compete of course get checked by a doctor at the beginning of the season and then at every fight. Boxing is much more carefult hen many other sports in this regard.
Boxgirls and the Free University Berlin have started a partnership with the University of the Western Cape Social Transformation Programme. If you are based near Cape Town you might be interested in coming to some of our events. Let me know it would be great to meet more sport activisits near Cape Town.
All the best from Berlin
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
It is good 4 me to get this chance.Cameron its me again in Cape town I am still waiting for you to come in this side becoz I told some of the kids about this boxing they are having an interest to watch maybe they can ask you questions also.I think it is good to know how to defend yourself in some of the cases phyisical,Life we are leaving in needs trained people to defend themselves
Please dont forget to contact me when you are coming in this side and I can help you to organise sort of the event in this side so that you can spread it .
Hey Cameron, what a cool, vibrant and multidimensional project. It's a perfect school for the challenges and the diversity of life, thanks especially to your enthusiastic, competent and wise trainer team! You have the wonderful personal strength and charisma to attract a neverending stream of committed people to the growing network, be it in Berlin or in Kenya or...
Good luck!
Dear Regina,
Our trainer team makes our success! Sarah and Nadja have brought all their skills, know how, hard work and passion to create such a vibrant growing and successful girls' boxing programme. Priest ANjere and other volunteers in Kenya are key to our success there.
We are very proud that everyone is working for us on a volunteer stipend basis. The love of the sport comes through and everyone knows that there is no administration or paid staff who can just be told what to do, but that what we want to do we do ourselves. We can motivate our sponsors and partners this way too as they see that we work hard to be as efficient and sustainable as possible.
We create other small spinoffs - whether it be business boxing in Berlin, or a web cafe in Nairobi, to create income and job opportunities for members. They then see their future in entrepreneurial development, rather than being supported by a social project which has its goal to support their developing self initiative, not keep them in our project forever.
Thanks again to all of our engaged volunteers!
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
as I am personally very interested in linguistics and especially multilinguism: would it be an idea to also include those aspects in your project / on the website (video?) parallel to strengthening the body language through sports? I remember we had great fun studying some words and expressions in Suaheli to support Conjestina in her world championship fight in Magdeburg. Or for our friends in Nairobi to learn some 'Box German' online and for our Berliners to study English for their future international career;) Tchappa i lale!
Dear Regina,
I agree that improving language skills is key to any long term exchange programme. I was very impressed at how quickly Sarah and Nadja learned key Swahili phrases and how much that opened thehearts of our Nairobi boxgirls to them. We want to do some training videso and we willoffer these in many languages. People can then use this as a learning tool. What sort of projects were you imagining?
Thanks for your comment
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
I like your idea with the multilingual training videos as learning tools a lot. As Nadja pointed out with regard to the ToC, it's seems to be equally important to have a kind of global and local boxgirls' philosophy and identity. So I was wondering what about adding sth like a video self presentation of the respective local boxgirls' groups where they shortly present themselves and their surroundings, motivation etc.? This way people would do their own documentation of their work as testimony / part of the shared memory and reminder of the core idea(l)s and goals for themselves and others. Plus - very practically - learn how to use video etc. which they could use for other purposes as well (like what you just did very successfully with the powerful videos about or rather with the Berlin-Kreuzberg young girls' sports initiatives - the enthusiasm and fascination for what they do and why is captured in a very authentic, refreshing and seductive way). Seeing is so much believing, and the common interest in boxing serves as a perfect link or interface for everyone to get access to other cultures and languages. Hi to everyone,
I think Regina mentions an important point here: the question for the local identities. While looking at the new website I was a bit wondering where I would find myself being represented or what would catch my attraction when I was a 13 year old girl from Berlin-Kreuzberg maybe not knowing so much English and being mainly interested in a club in my neighborhood. What I want to say is, besides all the unique strength of the international project there also has to be a strong focus on the local level. Finally it will be the local clubs that form the base of success. I think it will be an interesting challenge to include all the differences and similarities of each club to a synergetic international approach. This will definetely be something that changes the game!
Local Projects - Global Networks - How can we do it?
yes the focus will be on different websites for each location. We will have a boxgirls berlin site up soon - www.boxgirls.org/berlin or www.berlin.boxgirls.org which will have local language (German or Swahili) and ENglish content. It is just a question of how much we can do with the available volunteer labour available that the German and Nairobi sites are not up yet.
I really like the idea of doing local videos too. We have done version of this but not put them up for all to see. Perhaps when our coach Sarah goes to Nairobi in February 09 again she can help make a movie and we can do one here in the meantime.
Great suggestions Nadja and Regina. Anyone out there have experience with the network/local site relationship?
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Theory of Change
I would like to invite all of you to review our Theory of Change statement attached as a word document to our application. A theory of change statement is very important to social projects/enterprises as it tries to lay out all the steps a project takes to create social change and how an outsider could judge whether or not it is working. Please give us your feedback on how we can improve it.
I will happily review other people's ToCs! Lets try to be clear and transparent about what our assumptions and problems are.
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
I absolutely agree with you that a ToC statement is important to social initiatives. The ToC states how a project wants to approach a certain (injustice) social, political, economic situation in order to create more equality. Probably a ToC will always remind you what your dreams have been before you entered the daily hassles of running, managing, improving the project's implementation.
On the other hand the (Boxgirls') ToC is built on assumptions which reflect the recent situation. That made me wonder a little bit about the question of keeping a project and its assumptions dynamic and reflecting the intended and not intended changes. When would be the point to rewrite the theory behind it? And shouldn't the ToC also include risks and harms that might result from a respective intervention?
Another question that occured to me was a need for a maybe more differentiated approach. I didn't think much about it yet but I could imagine that the Boxgirls' ToC would have to look closer at each location's background (place, socioeconomic situation, culture, religion, ethnicity etc.) when you want to explain e. g. auto-aggresive behaviour or discriminatory experiences and address those by using boxing as a catalyst for change.
Dear Nadja
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I will look again at the Theory of Change (ToC) statement in light of your thoughts. Like a strategic plan for an organisation the theory of change statement is something which should be dynamic and revisted from time to time to make sure that the assumptions from before still apply and that new challenges or successes are taken into account.
You are very right that we will need to draft differnt ToCs with our various partner projects based on the effects boxing can have on women in their community. I will work with our colleagues in NAirobi to lay that out. They have already sent me material on this - for example that many girls in part because of the lack of other options, see professional boxing as a way to earn money for themselves and as a real career possibility in Nairobi while in Germany I would almost always suggest that the girls focus on their other opportunities.
I look forward to your comments on the new version.
Any one else have some constructive feedback?
Take good care of yourself. I look forward to the Boxgirls Hanoi workshop!!!
x Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
I think it would be very interesting to explore how/if chosing a professional boxing career for a girl or woman creates social change within a community or affects the individual. Then it would be also interesting to learn more about involving pro-boxers in community projects ... anyways I'm looking forward for the revised ToC.
Ya, Boxgirls Hanoi will come!
BOXERS and SOCIAL CHANGE
Well when you think about Mohammed Ali as an agent of social change it is hard to overstate the role professional athletes can play in their communities as leaders. The Ukranian World Champions Klitschko brothers are also active with the Laureus sport for good foundation - and are supporting a boys boxing project here in Kreuzberg in Berlin. Conjestina Achieng is a hero to youth in Nairobi and uses her own tale of triumph to motivate young people to pursue their dreams.
I guess my question is about the fickelness and unreliability of professional sport as a career and our responsibility/opportunity as project leaders to create a pathway for our athletes into a career that can support them and not just something which only a very special very talented and very lucky few can reach.
It is true that 2 of our members in NAirobi are fighting professionally - but that means by no measure that they can support themselves or that they are prepared for a career after. No one wants to think of that at the time which is why WE as project designers need to think about how to gives these girls and young women a good work preparation for the time after sport.
More thoughts...
Who has some more good ideas of Boxers as social change agents...well of course the Brown Bomber Louis...who else?
Off to boxtraining now.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
It is great to have the project in an international competition again. Since the last Changemakers competition Boxgirls developed a lot and it seems to me that the crazy dream of an international women's boxing network has become true. I'm looking forward to sharing here my experiences from having been a boxer and a coach in Berlin, from being a part of the establishing process of Boxgirls International and from now looking at everything from the distant perspective of a development advisor in Vietnam.
What arouses now my curiosity is the choice of the title. Courage wins! How did that come?.
Not so distant, coach Charaby...we all miss you here too. COURAGE WINS! I think the Boxgirls trainer Sarah said it best that she respects everyone who she trains for the ring regardless if they win or not since just getting in the ring shows such great courage and development.
Boxing develops courage and gives women and girls a tangible unambiguous way to show it. This is important. Many girls courageously face challenges every day but no one gives them credit for it - in boxing your courgae is seen and celebrated and it grows. Winning is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to be courageous enough to challenge yourself and your limitations. Boxgirls does this for our members.
Courage Wins -- also because our new website has such great photos of the girls and I wanted everyone to take a closer look -- www.boxgirls.org
A question for everyone - what is the motto of your project? What could the slogan be? How do you get your key message across in somethign snappy? let's discuss!
Bye for now.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Thank your for the explanaition. Yes, that's true. Boxing is so much about courage. Even only to decide that you want to box and then come to the gym is very courageous. Especially when I think of lots of girls and women at our gym who never really did any other sport before ... I think the new website and the pictures on it give a great impression of all the courage vibes in our gyms! Thanks for the fabulous work.
It's very true what you said - it takes COURAGE to decide to start boxing and GO to the gym. And I would add that there is another crucial point after that - to STAY in the gym... because it takes a lot of psychological and pedagogical skills to ENCOURAGE especially beginners. For me the Boxgirls' trainer serve as best practice example how the delicate art of handling people that are already brave and curious enough to try out something new should be carried out everywhere - there is always very precise, helpful and supportive advice, correction of technique etc., and all advice giving is done with utmost care and respect to people's individual limits. Plus the group atmosphere is dominated by a great team feeling and an unspoken solidarity spirit, meaning zero tolerance to discrimination in whatever way. I think we probably have all experienced or witnessed bad examples of discouragement at school or in other clubs where sometimes people were criticised or rather humiliated in front of the group in a way that scared them away from doing sports for the rest of their lives. In the best case it's like ping pong - courage and encouragement. Together they will lift you very high.
Hey everyone - I think it is very difficult to create the right balance of challenge and comfort to help people become healthier and more mentally sharp while still providing the chance to relax and to de-stress. How do other trainers deal with a really heterogenous training group?
We'd love to share experiences.
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hey Regina, what you mentioned seems so important and true to me, too! And when we take a close look at the development of boxgirls Berlin during the last months and the incredible growth of members it shows us that there must be a huge demand on doing sport in a way like it is practised with boxgirls. Thanks to the great trainer team I had the feeling of being respected and assisted from the very first day of my membership - that really makes me very proud of being a part of boxgirls!
So for me, what is most important is to try to model myself on our couragous trainer team - because they encourage me all the time! That's why I liked your metaphor of "ping pong" so much... ;-)
Kind regards, Eva
A New World is Possible and Together We Will
Hi Cameron I am fond of older generation because sooner or later they shall leave us and some of them might depart with a lot of knowledge.
That is the reason made me to start a old women football team visit my project KASWESHA Kick Poverty A Way Football Team.
Can we think of away of involving the old women in all kinds of games including boxing just for fun and for their own health.
Dear Mr. Gitau,
Thank you for your message. We also work with older women. Our oldest member is 54 and we have done workshops with older business women where they were in their early 60s. I think everyone can benefit from the social, psychological and physical benefits of physical activity. Good for you and your football team!
All the best from Berlin,
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Jambo, I re read your entry and we are working nearby to you in Nairobi Eastlands. Our trainer Alfred "Priest" Anjere is living in your district and we are planning a new office and web cafe there as well. I will send you his contact details. It would be great if we could work together with a wide range of girls and women.
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Thank you for mentioning the question for including people of different ages in sports programs. I think especially age (or the older genearation) is a factor that projects defintely have to consider when they talk about inclusion and also when they talk about change. Especially in European societies there is a lot of discrimination going on because of age-ism. For me personally it was always such a great opportunity that our club gave me as a boxer and also as a coach with having older people in the gym. It gave me the chance to spend time with people i normally wouldn't talk to because they do not go to the same places where I go and of course training with older people teaches us younger people a lot and makes us more aware of different questions regarding fitnees, physical health, treatment of our own body etc.
Our Office is located at the St Floor Mutarakwa House off Mutarakwa Road Kariobangi South Location, Embakasi Division.
Feel free to pay us a visit at your convenience time we are always there for we even train the older women and girls to make them ICT literate, and we are ready to partner with you.
Dear Mr. Gitau -
I am very interested to know how you go about teaching ICT skills. I key part of our new application this year is the inclusion of a webcafe and computer training centre for the girls in order to a) provide job training for Boxgirls Nairobi Eastlands participants b) provide more skills for boxgirls volunteers c) create income to cover the costs of training.
We met a young woman managing her own web cafe on our last visit in August this year. We will work together to have her help bring the girls up to speed on basic windows, email, internet and office programmes.
How do you do your ICT programmes? What skills do the women have when they start? Many of our girls had not used the internet before.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Thank you and best wishes for the new year 2009. Sarah Bitterling will be visiting NAirobi in February and me shortly thereafter. We look forward to seeing your programme in action and inviting you to meet with our project leaders in Buru Buru.
Sincerely,
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Dear, Cameron.
I would like to know whether Sarah Bitterling has arrived in Nairobi also kindly let me know when you are planing to visit our project.
We are planing for a Pre-International Women's Day Activities which will take place on Saturday 7th March whereby the key activity will be a football match between our team and all other interested Women teams.
The event will take place at KCC Playing Ground adjacent to KCC Factory Next to KCC Slum Village Kariobangi South Nairobi.
I take this opportunity to invite you and all other members of Sport for Change to be with us us during this worthwhile event!
Hi All,
I wanted to chime in here as this is a personal interest of mine too. I am particularly interested in how to tackle the high speed question? Are there viable options, e.g. wireless cards, sattelite, etc.? and are there any foundations or corporates focused on these types of donations?
Thanks
Ziba
Hey Ziba! Good to hear from you! In Kenya we use Safaricom usb stick toggles on our laptops which depending wher you are gives you UMTS speeds at the very best. Most internet is by cell phone toggle. In the hotels and some of the university areas there is WiFI but rarely.
We are trying to find out how to best get fast and RELIABLE intenet to the office location and will talk to partners about how to do it. Safaricom itself has a foundation and we will look into what sort of intellectual/technical help they can provide. They are one of the largest carriers in East Africa.
Greetings from Berlin! I met an older professor this weekend who was the captain of the British national team in women's lacrosse. Had to think of you guys.
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Congratulations!
There is always something to celebrate in this project: a new amazing website, cool movies about, and partly by, Boxgirls, growth of the Nairobi-Berlin connection with more and more gilrs getting to know their sister project, more training possibilities, and an inceasingly growing media coverage.
This last point about the media makes me think about the notion of change in gamechangers: maybe the real success will be when the media stops finding it worth telling that women and girls box. That is to say, motivating more women and girls to be active in boxing makes them not only good players in a game otherwise considered a game for man and boys. It can also help change the RULES of the game, which includes the various facettes of life and politics in the city. This is how I understand Boxgirls Nairobi and Berlin as serious gamechangers.
Hey boxgrils, what do you think is the game that you are changing?
The Game we are Changing...
Great Question - I really want to hear how some of the boxers see this... I think we are challenging the following assumptions...
... that girls don't want to do contact sport
...that girls are technically weak at boxing
...that boxing is about violence or anger
...that young women dont have the technical knowhow, commitment, fight experience ...whatever to be boxing coaches
...that young women cant get their financial game together to be sustainable and help others
...that boxing is about "hitting people in the face"
Great Question...what do the rest of you think?
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
you raised the important issue of paradigm change, thanks for that! I can only speak for myself from the perspective of a paramedic: even if it may sound obscure initially, but I see a lot of parallels between the tasks and challenges of rescue services and especially boxing. Both require a cold head, fast feet and a big heart - and above all you need to know your limits and learn to deal with failure and success. So in a more abstract way we basically talk about active (self) risk management and keeping focussed and cool especially in potentially challenging and stressful situations. To take care of yourself as self protection plus being mentally and physically fit is the prerequisite to be COURAGEOUS enough and take responsible and reasonable action to rescue others. You have to be ambitious, fast, yet cautious, strong, committed, thoughtful and flexible to be able to respond to and deal with everchanging situations, be it in the ring or in real life. Boxing helps you discover your limits and teaches you how to reach beyond, and this is the best training I can think of for all kinds of rescue professions where you fight for other people's lives. The fitter and yet relaxed you are, and the more you know about yourself, the better for those others that depend on your skills. So boxing combines individual and personal growth with a great solidarity effect.
Stress, Fear, Learning, Self Knowledge
I think that some people (not all people) learn from being overwhelmed and shocked a bit out of their comfort area so that they can see their own position (with its strengths and weaknesses) anew. I ams ure many people join the emergency services as volunteers because they want to help others and also want to do something that most other people find dangerous/dramatic/difficult etc. Many girls choose boxing for this reason too. Not everyone wants to play football or dance. Not everyone likes team sports. Some people want to really directly confront agression and their fear and for them boxing can be a great way to get to know themselves and learn to trust themselves.
Thanks for the comment.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
I also see a great potential of girls/women doing sports with regard to widening their professional perspectives - e.g. the fire and rescue departments have traditionally been dominated by men also due to the fact that of the few women who decided to apply many did not pass the physical entrance tests (many men fail, too). So once we have established more regular and serious training opportunities especially in physically and mentally challenging martial arts we will also be able to conquer the entrance rules of the game and have more gender diversity in those professions to mirror the variety and meet the needs of the patients.
Physical Fitness for Jobs
Girls who can do chin ups!
Hi Regina - Do you have any statistics on how many young women in Germany try out for and fail the entrance tests based on physical fitness? I am surprised that someone who would take the time to apply to be a firefighter or paramedic would not take the time to get enough in shape for it.
What exactly is the test? Many women fail because of a lack of upper body strngth - no chin ups and a lack of push ups on standardized tests. Can you let us know what the exercises are? We could do summer camps. When are the tests conducted? alsways at the same time of the year? Lets get some information and make a plan.
I think women fire fighters are great. Well all firefighters.... but especially girls who can do chin ups!
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Comments
Hey Cameron,
I remember your organization from last year. Thank you for entering again this year. I was curious about your US plans for expanding into the Seattel market. What types of partnerships are you seeking in order to roll out plans in the US market? Are they vastly different that the networks you've established elsewhere?
Thanks,
Stephani
Nike
Hi everybody -
We have some new links we want everyone to know about:
We have started a youtube channel to get our movies in one place: Check out
http://www.youtube.com/user/boxgirlinternational
and let us know what you think.
We are also on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=895782fd742063812956cadbd0331945&g...
and we are excited about a new partnership with BETTERPLACE an online market for social solutions:
http://www.betterplace.org/projects/951
Enjoy your trip through cyberspace!
Cameron (on the ground in Berlin)
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
BOXGIRLS a FEATURED SPORT on INTERNATIONAL SPORT AND DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM.
Boxgirls and Fight for Peace are profiled as case studies for using boxing as a catalyst for social change.
Please review and give us some questions and comments how boxing and self defence programmes can contribute to creating social change.
www.sportanddev.org
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi -
Yes we had lots of fun on changemakers last year and we are excited to be back. Lots of progress in the last 9 months since the contest ended. We have hosted a coaching workshop in Nairobi and CNN International was at our gym to report on our programmes. We have met with women's boxing clubs in Toronto and secured seed funding for a project in SOuth AFrica. We have continued our prtnership with Women Win and are looking forward to expanding into the US. We are looking for women boxers and womens boxing clubs to join us providing excellent training for girls and women in our cities and also holding events to raise money for girls in even more disadvantgaed areas. Since we have been on CNN a lot of people have been in touch with interest which is great. We are also very happy with all the support we have from Nike in the form of know how and network. Perhaps we should run some boxing workshops in Beaverton - how do you think that will go over?
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hey Heather,
I think it would be a great program here - I just told a friend about your organization. She participates in a boxing group here and I imagine she'd be very interested in looking at the opportunities to use boxing to support girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. Compared to Seattle, Beaverton probably doesn't have the same level of resources and because you've had high visibilty from CNN, you probably won't have much trouble identifying partners that would want to work with you. I'll ask her because she might have some great insights about where she thinks a great boxing community has already been established.
Thanks!
Stephani
Nike
Hi Stephani
Great. Thanks for thinking of us. She can reach me at cameron@boxgirls.de.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
A New World is Possible and Together We Will
Hello! Cameron.
I sent you an e-mail through the e-mail address above but it bounced back, please advise.
J N Gitau
kaswesha@gmail.com
+254 722 212171
Hi Cameron,
I think this project is very interesting. What was the reason for you, to start it?
Hi Yve,
thanks for your interest in Boxgirls. We were having so much fun with Boxgirls in Germany and had built such a strong team of trainers in Berlin that we wanted to help other womens' clubs learn from our experience and benefit from our know how. We also wanted to apply what we had learned to other contexts and meet new boxers. We had difficulties establishing our programme in Berlin and now it is thriving. We wanted to support people get over the difficult start up phase. I love what amateur boxing has done for me and for so many other girls and women (decreased stress, strong body, feeling secure in the city, dealing with aggression) I wanted to share it in the wider community.
Thanks for your question.
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi Cameron.
I am curious to know the state of the boxing industry since the increased attention to MMA fighting. Has that changed the lanscape for what you do in any way?
I know you focus on the social aspect of bringing these women to together but I am curious to know how the boxing associations/clubs are responding to your program.
PS: I think your organisation is genious in the way in can individually empower women. Love the Youtube videos, really brings it into persepective.
- Stu
Hi Stu -
Thanks! We also love the videos, they were fun to make and were good also for the girls and women who made them to understand the process and how TV reporting works.
I dont like MMA, I don't particularly like professional boxing. I like light cntact box training for girls, who can develop into full contact competitive amateur (controlled environment, safety equipment) boxing if they want and once they have the skills. Many fight fans like MMA for its no hold barred approach. I like boxing for its tension between rules, technique and boxing skills. I am more a boxing fan than a fight fan. The leadership of international olympic/amateur boxing need to rethink how they position boxing. I do not see a lot of new ideas from them. We are redefining the sport as something that requires a cool head, fast feet and a big heart.
All the best from Berlin
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
NBQNONONGO
Hi cameron,This is interesting and I think it is important to involve womens in different sporting codes,so my question?How do you do to get girls for boxing and do you take them for check up before they start becoz I believe there is a lot of complication when it comes to the ring or stage.
Dear Nqabisa
Thanks for your question and congrats on your work for women and sport on the Cape. Girls come to us to box. Many girls just like the idea of learning self defense, being trained by other women, and doing something"different" from the regular sports they are offered. Some girls' parents aren't so keen on the idea of their daughter boxing to start (!) but then we invite them and they get to know us and the training and some of the most sceptical parents are now our biggest supporters.
Girls who want to compete of course get checked by a doctor at the beginning of the season and then at every fight. Boxing is much more carefult hen many other sports in this regard.
Boxgirls and the Free University Berlin have started a partnership with the University of the Western Cape Social Transformation Programme. If you are based near Cape Town you might be interested in coming to some of our events. Let me know it would be great to meet more sport activisits near Cape Town.
All the best from Berlin
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
It is good 4 me to get this chance.Cameron its me again in Cape town I am still waiting for you to come in this side becoz I told some of the kids about this boxing they are having an interest to watch maybe they can ask you questions also.I think it is good to know how to defend yourself in some of the cases phyisical,Life we are leaving in needs trained people to defend themselves
Please dont forget to contact me when you are coming in this side and I can help you to organise sort of the event in this side so that you can spread it .
Hey Cameron, what a cool, vibrant and multidimensional project. It's a perfect school for the challenges and the diversity of life, thanks especially to your enthusiastic, competent and wise trainer team! You have the wonderful personal strength and charisma to attract a neverending stream of committed people to the growing network, be it in Berlin or in Kenya or...
Good luck!
Regina, Berlin / University of Basel, Switzerland
Dear Regina,
Our trainer team makes our success! Sarah and Nadja have brought all their skills, know how, hard work and passion to create such a vibrant growing and successful girls' boxing programme. Priest ANjere and other volunteers in Kenya are key to our success there.
We are very proud that everyone is working for us on a volunteer stipend basis. The love of the sport comes through and everyone knows that there is no administration or paid staff who can just be told what to do, but that what we want to do we do ourselves. We can motivate our sponsors and partners this way too as they see that we work hard to be as efficient and sustainable as possible.
We create other small spinoffs - whether it be business boxing in Berlin, or a web cafe in Nairobi, to create income and job opportunities for members. They then see their future in entrepreneurial development, rather than being supported by a social project which has its goal to support their developing self initiative, not keep them in our project forever.
Thanks again to all of our engaged volunteers!
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Dear Cameron,
as I am personally very interested in linguistics and especially multilinguism: would it be an idea to also include those aspects in your project / on the website (video?) parallel to strengthening the body language through sports? I remember we had great fun studying some words and expressions in Suaheli to support Conjestina in her world championship fight in Magdeburg. Or for our friends in Nairobi to learn some 'Box German' online and for our Berliners to study English for their future international career;) Tchappa i lale!
Regina, Berlin / University of Basel, Switzerland
Dear Regina,
I agree that improving language skills is key to any long term exchange programme. I was very impressed at how quickly Sarah and Nadja learned key Swahili phrases and how much that opened thehearts of our Nairobi boxgirls to them. We want to do some training videso and we willoffer these in many languages. People can then use this as a learning tool. What sort of projects were you imagining?
Thanks for your comment
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Dear Cameron,
I like your idea with the multilingual training videos as learning tools a lot. As Nadja pointed out with regard to the ToC, it's seems to be equally important to have a kind of global and local boxgirls' philosophy and identity. So I was wondering what about adding sth like a video self presentation of the respective local boxgirls' groups where they shortly present themselves and their surroundings, motivation etc.? This way people would do their own documentation of their work as testimony / part of the shared memory and reminder of the core idea(l)s and goals for themselves and others. Plus - very practically - learn how to use video etc. which they could use for other purposes as well (like what you just did very successfully with the powerful videos about or rather with the Berlin-Kreuzberg young girls' sports initiatives - the enthusiasm and fascination for what they do and why is captured in a very authentic, refreshing and seductive way). Seeing is so much believing, and the common interest in boxing serves as a perfect link or interface for everyone to get access to other cultures and languages. Hi to everyone,
Regina, Berlin / University of Basel, Switzerland
Hi everybody,
I think Regina mentions an important point here: the question for the local identities. While looking at the new website I was a bit wondering where I would find myself being represented or what would catch my attraction when I was a 13 year old girl from Berlin-Kreuzberg maybe not knowing so much English and being mainly interested in a club in my neighborhood. What I want to say is, besides all the unique strength of the international project there also has to be a strong focus on the local level. Finally it will be the local clubs that form the base of success. I think it will be an interesting challenge to include all the differences and similarities of each club to a synergetic international approach. This will definetely be something that changes the game!
Greetings, Nadja
Nadja / Hanoi, Vietnam
Local Projects - Global Networks - How can we do it?
yes the focus will be on different websites for each location. We will have a boxgirls berlin site up soon - www.boxgirls.org/berlin or www.berlin.boxgirls.org which will have local language (German or Swahili) and ENglish content. It is just a question of how much we can do with the available volunteer labour available that the German and Nairobi sites are not up yet.
I really like the idea of doing local videos too. We have done version of this but not put them up for all to see. Perhaps when our coach Sarah goes to Nairobi in February 09 again she can help make a movie and we can do one here in the meantime.
Great suggestions Nadja and Regina. Anyone out there have experience with the network/local site relationship?
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Theory of Change
I would like to invite all of you to review our Theory of Change statement attached as a word document to our application. A theory of change statement is very important to social projects/enterprises as it tries to lay out all the steps a project takes to create social change and how an outsider could judge whether or not it is working. Please give us your feedback on how we can improve it.
I will happily review other people's ToCs! Lets try to be clear and transparent about what our assumptions and problems are.
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi Cameron,
I absolutely agree with you that a ToC statement is important to social initiatives. The ToC states how a project wants to approach a certain (injustice) social, political, economic situation in order to create more equality. Probably a ToC will always remind you what your dreams have been before you entered the daily hassles of running, managing, improving the project's implementation.
On the other hand the (Boxgirls') ToC is built on assumptions which reflect the recent situation. That made me wonder a little bit about the question of keeping a project and its assumptions dynamic and reflecting the intended and not intended changes. When would be the point to rewrite the theory behind it? And shouldn't the ToC also include risks and harms that might result from a respective intervention?
Another question that occured to me was a need for a maybe more differentiated approach. I didn't think much about it yet but I could imagine that the Boxgirls' ToC would have to look closer at each location's background (place, socioeconomic situation, culture, religion, ethnicity etc.) when you want to explain e. g. auto-aggresive behaviour or discriminatory experiences and address those by using boxing as a catalyst for change.
Just some spontaneous thoughts ...
All the best.
Nadja / Hanoi, Vietnam
Dear Nadja
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I will look again at the Theory of Change (ToC) statement in light of your thoughts. Like a strategic plan for an organisation the theory of change statement is something which should be dynamic and revisted from time to time to make sure that the assumptions from before still apply and that new challenges or successes are taken into account.
You are very right that we will need to draft differnt ToCs with our various partner projects based on the effects boxing can have on women in their community. I will work with our colleagues in NAirobi to lay that out. They have already sent me material on this - for example that many girls in part because of the lack of other options, see professional boxing as a way to earn money for themselves and as a real career possibility in Nairobi while in Germany I would almost always suggest that the girls focus on their other opportunities.
I look forward to your comments on the new version.
Any one else have some constructive feedback?
Take good care of yourself. I look forward to the Boxgirls Hanoi workshop!!!
x Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi Cameron,
I think it would be very interesting to explore how/if chosing a professional boxing career for a girl or woman creates social change within a community or affects the individual. Then it would be also interesting to learn more about involving pro-boxers in community projects ... anyways I'm looking forward for the revised ToC.
Ya, Boxgirls Hanoi will come!
Take care too.
Best, Nadja
Nadja / Hanoi, Vietnam
BOXERS and SOCIAL CHANGE
Well when you think about Mohammed Ali as an agent of social change it is hard to overstate the role professional athletes can play in their communities as leaders. The Ukranian World Champions Klitschko brothers are also active with the Laureus sport for good foundation - and are supporting a boys boxing project here in Kreuzberg in Berlin. Conjestina Achieng is a hero to youth in Nairobi and uses her own tale of triumph to motivate young people to pursue their dreams.
I guess my question is about the fickelness and unreliability of professional sport as a career and our responsibility/opportunity as project leaders to create a pathway for our athletes into a career that can support them and not just something which only a very special very talented and very lucky few can reach.
It is true that 2 of our members in NAirobi are fighting professionally - but that means by no measure that they can support themselves or that they are prepared for a career after. No one wants to think of that at the time which is why WE as project designers need to think about how to gives these girls and young women a good work preparation for the time after sport.
More thoughts...
Who has some more good ideas of Boxers as social change agents...well of course the Brown Bomber Louis...who else?
Off to boxtraining now.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi Cameron,
It is great to have the project in an international competition again. Since the last Changemakers competition Boxgirls developed a lot and it seems to me that the crazy dream of an international women's boxing network has become true. I'm looking forward to sharing here my experiences from having been a boxer and a coach in Berlin, from being a part of the establishing process of Boxgirls International and from now looking at everything from the distant perspective of a development advisor in Vietnam.
What arouses now my curiosity is the choice of the title. Courage wins! How did that come?.
All the best!
Nadja / Hanoi, Vietnam
Not so distant, coach Charaby...we all miss you here too. COURAGE WINS! I think the Boxgirls trainer Sarah said it best that she respects everyone who she trains for the ring regardless if they win or not since just getting in the ring shows such great courage and development.
Boxing develops courage and gives women and girls a tangible unambiguous way to show it. This is important. Many girls courageously face challenges every day but no one gives them credit for it - in boxing your courgae is seen and celebrated and it grows. Winning is not the most important thing. The most important thing is to be courageous enough to challenge yourself and your limitations. Boxgirls does this for our members.
Courage Wins -- also because our new website has such great photos of the girls and I wanted everyone to take a closer look -- www.boxgirls.org
A question for everyone - what is the motto of your project? What could the slogan be? How do you get your key message across in somethign snappy? let's discuss!
Bye for now.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi,
Thank your for the explanaition. Yes, that's true. Boxing is so much about courage. Even only to decide that you want to box and then come to the gym is very courageous. Especially when I think of lots of girls and women at our gym who never really did any other sport before ... I think the new website and the pictures on it give a great impression of all the courage vibes in our gyms! Thanks for the fabulous work.
Nadja
Nadja / Hanoi, Vietnam
Courage and Encouragement
Hi Nadja,
It's very true what you said - it takes COURAGE to decide to start boxing and GO to the gym. And I would add that there is another crucial point after that - to STAY in the gym... because it takes a lot of psychological and pedagogical skills to ENCOURAGE especially beginners. For me the Boxgirls' trainer serve as best practice example how the delicate art of handling people that are already brave and curious enough to try out something new should be carried out everywhere - there is always very precise, helpful and supportive advice, correction of technique etc., and all advice giving is done with utmost care and respect to people's individual limits. Plus the group atmosphere is dominated by a great team feeling and an unspoken solidarity spirit, meaning zero tolerance to discrimination in whatever way. I think we probably have all experienced or witnessed bad examples of discouragement at school or in other clubs where sometimes people were criticised or rather humiliated in front of the group in a way that scared them away from doing sports for the rest of their lives. In the best case it's like ping pong - courage and encouragement. Together they will lift you very high.
Regina, Berlin / University of Basel, Switzerland
RESPECTFULLY PUSHING the LIMITS
Hey everyone - I think it is very difficult to create the right balance of challenge and comfort to help people become healthier and more mentally sharp while still providing the chance to relax and to de-stress. How do other trainers deal with a really heterogenous training group?
We'd love to share experiences.
Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hey Regina, what you mentioned seems so important and true to me, too! And when we take a close look at the development of boxgirls Berlin during the last months and the incredible growth of members it shows us that there must be a huge demand on doing sport in a way like it is practised with boxgirls. Thanks to the great trainer team I had the feeling of being respected and assisted from the very first day of my membership - that really makes me very proud of being a part of boxgirls!
So for me, what is most important is to try to model myself on our couragous trainer team - because they encourage me all the time! That's why I liked your metaphor of "ping pong" so much... ;-)
Kind regards, Eva
A New World is Possible and Together We Will
Hi Cameron I am fond of older generation because sooner or later they shall leave us and some of them might depart with a lot of knowledge.
That is the reason made me to start a old women football team visit my project KASWESHA Kick Poverty A Way Football Team.
Can we think of away of involving the old women in all kinds of games including boxing just for fun and for their own health.
kaswesha@gmail.com
+254 722 212171
Dear Mr. Gitau,
Thank you for your message. We also work with older women. Our oldest member is 54 and we have done workshops with older business women where they were in their early 60s. I think everyone can benefit from the social, psychological and physical benefits of physical activity. Good for you and your football team!
All the best from Berlin,
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Jambo, I re read your entry and we are working nearby to you in Nairobi Eastlands. Our trainer Alfred "Priest" Anjere is living in your district and we are planning a new office and web cafe there as well. I will send you his contact details. It would be great if we could work together with a wide range of girls and women.
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hello Mr. Gitau,
Thank you for mentioning the question for including people of different ages in sports programs. I think especially age (or the older genearation) is a factor that projects defintely have to consider when they talk about inclusion and also when they talk about change. Especially in European societies there is a lot of discrimination going on because of age-ism. For me personally it was always such a great opportunity that our club gave me as a boxer and also as a coach with having older people in the gym. It gave me the chance to spend time with people i normally wouldn't talk to because they do not go to the same places where I go and of course training with older people teaches us younger people a lot and makes us more aware of different questions regarding fitnees, physical health, treatment of our own body etc.
Best, Nadja
Nadja / Hanoi, Vietnam
A New World is Possible and Together We Will
Welcome Cameron.
Our Office is located at the St Floor Mutarakwa House off Mutarakwa Road Kariobangi South Location, Embakasi Division.
Feel free to pay us a visit at your convenience time we are always there for we even train the older women and girls to make them ICT literate, and we are ready to partner with you.
Have a good time.
Kaswesha@gmail.com
+254 722 212171
Dear Mr. Gitau -
I am very interested to know how you go about teaching ICT skills. I key part of our new application this year is the inclusion of a webcafe and computer training centre for the girls in order to a) provide job training for Boxgirls Nairobi Eastlands participants b) provide more skills for boxgirls volunteers c) create income to cover the costs of training.
We met a young woman managing her own web cafe on our last visit in August this year. We will work together to have her help bring the girls up to speed on basic windows, email, internet and office programmes.
How do you do your ICT programmes? What skills do the women have when they start? Many of our girls had not used the internet before.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
A New World is Possible and Together We Will
Hi! Heather.
The our programmes are very simple despite the fact that most of the times they are hampered by lack of resources.
I have sent you a message through your e-mail address, with pictures of women learning computers in our resource center.
J N Gitau
Kaswesha@gmail.com
+254 722 212171
Thank you and best wishes for the new year 2009. Sarah Bitterling will be visiting NAirobi in February and me shortly thereafter. We look forward to seeing your programme in action and inviting you to meet with our project leaders in Buru Buru.
Sincerely,
Heather Cameron
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
A New World is Possible and Together We Will
Dear, Cameron.
I would like to know whether Sarah Bitterling has arrived in Nairobi also kindly let me know when you are planing to visit our project.
We are planing for a Pre-International Women's Day Activities which will take place on Saturday 7th March whereby the key activity will be a football match between our team and all other interested Women teams.
The event will take place at KCC Playing Ground adjacent to KCC Factory Next to KCC Slum Village Kariobangi South Nairobi.
I take this opportunity to invite you and all other members of Sport for Change to be with us us during this worthwhile event!
Hi All,
I wanted to chime in here as this is a personal interest of mine too. I am particularly interested in how to tackle the high speed question? Are there viable options, e.g. wireless cards, sattelite, etc.? and are there any foundations or corporates focused on these types of donations?
Thanks
Ziba
Hey Ziba! Good to hear from you! In Kenya we use Safaricom usb stick toggles on our laptops which depending wher you are gives you UMTS speeds at the very best. Most internet is by cell phone toggle. In the hotels and some of the university areas there is WiFI but rarely.
We are trying to find out how to best get fast and RELIABLE intenet to the office location and will talk to partners about how to do it. Safaricom itself has a foundation and we will look into what sort of intellectual/technical help they can provide. They are one of the largest carriers in East Africa.
Greetings from Berlin! I met an older professor this weekend who was the captain of the British national team in women's lacrosse. Had to think of you guys.
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Congratulations!
There is always something to celebrate in this project: a new amazing website, cool movies about, and partly by, Boxgirls, growth of the Nairobi-Berlin connection with more and more gilrs getting to know their sister project, more training possibilities, and an inceasingly growing media coverage.
This last point about the media makes me think about the notion of change in gamechangers: maybe the real success will be when the media stops finding it worth telling that women and girls box. That is to say, motivating more women and girls to be active in boxing makes them not only good players in a game otherwise considered a game for man and boys. It can also help change the RULES of the game, which includes the various facettes of life and politics in the city. This is how I understand Boxgirls Nairobi and Berlin as serious gamechangers.
Hey boxgrils, what do you think is the game that you are changing?
All the best!
Christine
The Game we are Changing...
Great Question - I really want to hear how some of the boxers see this... I think we are challenging the following assumptions...
... that girls don't want to do contact sport
...that girls are technically weak at boxing
...that boxing is about violence or anger
...that young women dont have the technical knowhow, commitment, fight experience ...whatever to be boxing coaches
...that young women cant get their financial game together to be sustainable and help others
...that boxing is about "hitting people in the face"
Great Question...what do the rest of you think?
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hi Christine and Cameron,
you raised the important issue of paradigm change, thanks for that! I can only speak for myself from the perspective of a paramedic: even if it may sound obscure initially, but I see a lot of parallels between the tasks and challenges of rescue services and especially boxing. Both require a cold head, fast feet and a big heart - and above all you need to know your limits and learn to deal with failure and success. So in a more abstract way we basically talk about active (self) risk management and keeping focussed and cool especially in potentially challenging and stressful situations. To take care of yourself as self protection plus being mentally and physically fit is the prerequisite to be COURAGEOUS enough and take responsible and reasonable action to rescue others. You have to be ambitious, fast, yet cautious, strong, committed, thoughtful and flexible to be able to respond to and deal with everchanging situations, be it in the ring or in real life. Boxing helps you discover your limits and teaches you how to reach beyond, and this is the best training I can think of for all kinds of rescue professions where you fight for other people's lives. The fitter and yet relaxed you are, and the more you know about yourself, the better for those others that depend on your skills. So boxing combines individual and personal growth with a great solidarity effect.
Just try it out yourself, you will be amazed...
Regina, Berlin / University of Basel, Switzerland
Stress, Fear, Learning, Self Knowledge
I think that some people (not all people) learn from being overwhelmed and shocked a bit out of their comfort area so that they can see their own position (with its strengths and weaknesses) anew. I ams ure many people join the emergency services as volunteers because they want to help others and also want to do something that most other people find dangerous/dramatic/difficult etc. Many girls choose boxing for this reason too. Not everyone wants to play football or dance. Not everyone likes team sports. Some people want to really directly confront agression and their fear and for them boxing can be a great way to get to know themselves and learn to trust themselves.
Thanks for the comment.
HC
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
Hey all,
I also see a great potential of girls/women doing sports with regard to widening their professional perspectives - e.g. the fire and rescue departments have traditionally been dominated by men also due to the fact that of the few women who decided to apply many did not pass the physical entrance tests (many men fail, too). So once we have established more regular and serious training opportunities especially in physically and mentally challenging martial arts we will also be able to conquer the entrance rules of the game and have more gender diversity in those professions to mirror the variety and meet the needs of the patients.
Regina, Berlin / University of Basel, Switzerland
Physical Fitness for Jobs
Girls who can do chin ups!
Hi Regina - Do you have any statistics on how many young women in Germany try out for and fail the entrance tests based on physical fitness? I am surprised that someone who would take the time to apply to be a firefighter or paramedic would not take the time to get enough in shape for it.
What exactly is the test? Many women fail because of a lack of upper body strngth - no chin ups and a lack of push ups on standardized tests. Can you let us know what the exercises are? We could do summer camps. When are the tests conducted? alsways at the same time of the year? Lets get some information and make a plan.
I think women fire fighters are great. Well all firefighters.... but especially girls who can do chin ups!
Heather Cameron
Executive Director
Boxgirls International
Professor - Freie Universitaet Berlin
yeah! that would be fun to have a summercamp for women to prepare for the tests!!
I am on for that!!
greatings
Sarah Bitterling/coach of boxgirls berlin/ referee/ children´s educator/ student of social work
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