Start of School Reach Out Programme

Boxgirls International made a name for itself in the township of Khayelitsha in Capetown, South Africa:
On the 13. of September the Vuzamanzi Primary school was overcrowded, students were observing behind the windows, teachers were excited motivating girls.
The coach Andiswa Madikane was well occupied with 60 girls on the first day, who were eager to learn how to throw a jab. She finally ended up training the girls outside the classrooms.
All the girls were very talented and energetic, so teaching them we had as much fun as them. Already after the first training, they stated, that they want to train now everyday. Their new motto since then is ?no more tears?. They valued, that with the boxing training they are not scared of bullies at school anymore.
Boxgirls associate Ntsikie was not the only one being impressed by this crowd of amazing and brilliant girls, that shared their stories with no fear.

Women can defend themselves and we need to respect their rights
Our grandfathers used to play sticks fight during the heritage month in South Africa, but on 18.September 2010 Boxgirls proved them wrong by demonstrating their boxing skills in front of hundreds of people.
Boxgirls took part on professional fight promotion at Khayelitsha Mall. The outcome was an overwhelming success for our girls:
Bongisa Zilo from the Boxgirls project in the district Atlantis in Cape Town won by points in the second round. Tsobotsi, also from Boxgirls Atlantis won by points in the third round.
With champions like that, no wonder, that people were impressed and wanted to know details about this new rising organisation. Our local PR officer Ntsiki received calls enjoyes an increasing number of inquieries interviews every week.
Women and girls from various background and with different expectations are interested in joining the Boxgirls team. Some have heard of our skill building programmes as presentation workshops and some are mainly interested in finding a new way of experiencing themselves and their bodies through the unique Boxgirls training. All of them see boxing , the way it is presented by our work, as a catalyst though. That pleases us immensely, being that our very argument for our project.

Show, what you stand for
Having that in mind, we are embracing the performative way of making our cause known to even more people.
As simple as the fact of wearing a Boxgirls-T-shirt seems, the experience tells us, that people seeing out logo-shirts come and ask: ?Who are you? What are you doing??
Also the word gets spread, that Boxgirls girls are not ones to mess around with.
Fitting to the latest news, that the province of the Western Cape and Cape Town has a high rate of over weight people, many people also just motivate us, to stay trim and trained. 
So you see, what big an influence a piece of cloth can have and think about, what you want to stand for.

(by: Ntsiki Madikwa/lim)