Why we care: In parts of Kenya, young people – especially girls – are at risk for sexual violence.  

 

How we’re solving this:  Supporting Dolphin Anti-Rape and AIDS Control Outreach to train 2500 Kenyan teachers over the course of 2.5 years in self-defense techniques, 100,000 thousand young people will learn essential skills to keep themselves safe.

 

V-Day is supporting Dolphin Anti-Rape and AIDS Control Outreach, a non-profit organization that delivers life-saving sexual violence prevention education in Nairobi, Kenya to train 1000 teachers a year in self-defense techniques at a cost of $10,000 a year.  Having supported Dolphin for over 10 years now, we believe supporting a “train the trainer” model will help carry on the work of Dolphin on a grassroots level, allowing teachers to reach more than 100,000 thousand young people in Kenya in the next 2.5 years with essential skills to keep themselves safe.

 

Since 1998, under the leadership of Co-Founders and Directors Winnie Anyango and Duncan Bomba Omwani Papa Omundu Umundu, Dolphin has had an incredible track record, reaching hundreds of thousands of young people with their powerful message of empowerment. Self-defense techniques taught through Dolphin are based on East Asian martial arts practices, which emphasize using knowledge as a first line of self-defense and then employing physical techniques as the next.  

 

By integrating drama, song and dance into the classes, Winnie and Duncan can bring alive everyday situations, providing an avenue for young people to imagine how they might use self-defense techniques to protect themselves in their own lives. Training teachers in Kenya to deliver this kind of training to their own student is ripe with potential.

 

Dolphin’s success has been evident throughout the years and V-Day is fully committed to continuing to support them.  For example, after a training in the Dandora Slum in June, Dolphin received news from a teacher who had been at the school training to say: “school girls have started sharing the self-defense skills with other girls and women who did not have the opportunity to learn them directly from Dolphin Anti Rape team.

 

Bringing this essential training to a cadre of Kenyan teachers will have immeasurable long-term impact on the lives of many Kenyan children. Keeping them safe enables them to focus on schooling, and ultimately be positive members of their communities.