On June 5th, Prayatna Nepal organized the fight back training for visually impaired women, which focused on providing these bright women with tools of empowerment and independence through awareness and self-defense training. 11 participants from different ages, backgrounds and regions were in attendance.Initial introductions commenced with Ms. Sarita Lamichhane instructing the members on the importance of consent and confidentiality. Soft skills trainer, Mr. Pandey from FightBack Nepal, over the span of 5 days provided very thorough, informative and interactive theory classes on the types of violence, ways of avoiding and reporting said violence, importance of verbally stating ‘NO’, the rule of mobility, good touch/ bad touch, unwanted confrontations in public vehicles, posture and tone of voice when talking to the assailant and also on topics of fear and immobilization.
The second half of the day was usually followed by, Mr. Magar providing descriptive and basic principles rooted in self-defense. Participants learned how to respond if someone makes physical contact with them. A quick and loud verbal response was taught to be the first step in self-protection where they learned to say ‘ROK’. They further learned to establish strong posture and stance to protect themselves through the ‘SOS Block’.Additionally participants were also taught about the sensitive areas that they may target if necessary through various attacks like palm strike, ear palm strike, cane attacks and eyes poke. Several techniques with regard to hair, neck and back grab were also taught.
