Teaching girls martial-arts to combat sexual violence

The Austrian aid organisation SONNE-International is offering young Indian women martial-arts courses so they can defend themselves against sexual violence.

SONNE-International was founded by Chairman Erfried Malle and the Styrian physician Dr. Susanne Prügger in 2002. Their mission is to support education and training to decrease poverty. Their strategy is „to help people to help themselves”. Target groups are children and adolescents, women and underprivileged communities in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India and Myanmar.

According to their website, their methods are:

  • Partnerships:

„We choose, conceive and implement the projects together with our local partners in a participatory manner. The partners are responsible for conducting the project on site, for writing regular reports, for administering the finances and for carrying out annual audit reports. SONNE-International provides the financial means, administers, controls and evaluates the projects and keeps contact with the funding bodies and with major as well as small donors.“

  • Gender equality: 

„We put particular emphasis on gender equality when conceiving our projects as well as with regard to their execution, administration and management.“

For more information about the organisation and its projects visit the homepage: SONNE-International