Who was I before Fightback? I was a girl who hesitated to go outside and preferred to stay, a girl unaware of situations the public might do or face, and someone afraid of her safety because I knew that I am not capable enough to protect myself. I was wrong. Maybe five days of intense training won’t make me a Bollywood superhero who beats all the villains but what I became was someone more confident and aware. I trained with my friends, we were a bunch of innocent teenagers trying to be safer in this world. Every single day new techniques were taught and mentally we were prepared that no place is safe. There are cases in this world where girls struggle to live soundly in their own houses. Cases of sexual assault were presented for awareness and information. A case that caught my eye was the case of “The Dating Game”. The rapist and serial killer Rodney Alcala was on a murder spree, he starred in the show as a candidate for the bachelorette. Unfortunately, he won the show but her instincts were against her own selection which led her to survive. They used this case to teach us that whenever you are alone or you with someone your instincts will always tend to give you hints. Those hints should never be ignored. No matter how light the situation is your instincts will always signal for benefit. This was one of the many reasons one was protected from anything dangerous. There are simple ways we can be safe but we are just unaware which is what Fightback broke. My self-esteem also increased as I was informed well. Before all, I thought that to protect yourself you should just be physically strong whereas the mind plays a huge. The mind monitors our actions and in situations like this everyone’s first reaction will always be anxiety. No one can stop one from panic attacks but we can control it. While one has a stable mindset they will be able to make smarter decisions and act maturely. Another important skill for self-protection is technique. One can easily learn how to punch but it is difficult to punch someone correctly. Within five days I was able to learn the basic knowledge regarding correct techniques for self-defense. They made an effort to find innovative ways for protection through daily products such as an umbrella, pen, newspaper, etc. There was physical fitness training it helped my mind to be fit and active thus my muscles revived again. My muscle still has memory after one year and instantly performs steps for defense. This has helped me to walk out without any hesitation. I changed, changed into someone who can independently protect herself using her physical and mental abilities. I received the knowledge of reality and the need for independence and confidence.
We recently have a session of a fightback and I really enjoyed it. It was great to get so many women together who I work with and across the organizations and learn vital things to keep ourselves safe. It was great that it was specific about what is happening in Nepal and it was useful for everybody in that session. Before the fightback program, I was always interested in Gender issues and wanted to learn more about how to feel safe because I always don’t feel safe. As I am quite small and get scared walking around alone. It was a really good and great session to learn physical techniques and how to respond mentally and vocally to things in situations that I was never good at but now I am. I organized this fightback session here in UNOPS and it was very easy to do and the whole fightback team was responsive and helped the session to adapt in order to our needs. Fightback is a useful and simple process and I recommend every institution to organize a fightback session. The greatest gift a woman can get.
The fightback program was an eye-opening session to me because I have never attended one of such sessions before where I learn about a convenient way to defend myself. Especially being a girl in Nepal, this training is very useful and I recommend everyone to take the 'Fightback' courses. Before I attended the Fightback program, I would have never thought of what I would do in dangerous situation and wouldn't be able to assess the situation in right manner. I think people should be more aware of what steps should be taken in dangerous situations. Fightback does cover Mental, Vocal, and Physical aspects to ensure oneself to be one's, own protector. Physical is important because we need to fight back in many situations but being mentally prepared is the most important aspect because you freeze in a dangerous situations then physical and vocal won’t back you up. Therefore, the fightback course is designed in such a way that even if I forget to use it in a daily way I will remember this course when I will be in such situations.
The best part about fightback for me personally was before fightback program I did feel insecure even walking down the street outside my house but now I have stronger sense of safety and it is just not in terms of physical safety but mentally as well. I have stronger sense of awareness and stronger instinct. I know how I should react to anything that happens in sudden incidents to us while walking down the street or even going anywhere around the world. I think one of the biggest lessons and one of the most important sessions for me that day was improvised weapon training. Fightback trainers taught us that ATM card, our shawl and many more other that we use everyday can be used as a weapon for our own safety. Since in Nepal according to the law no one can carry weapon with them so trainers taught us that not only knife and guns can be weapon but everything we use everyday can be weapon if used with certain techniques. That session very educating to me. Another session that i enjoyed was the sexual violence in public vehicle where we can stand in certain positions to keep distance with people we don’t like in crowded vehicle. These are some important lessons that learned from Fightback training.
I feel fortunate and happy to get a chance to learn fightback skills. This program has surely increased my confidence level anywhere I go. As a grade 10 student, my school life is almost over, and will be starting my +2 soon, so now I would need to travel a lot in public transportation, and sometimes I might also need to travel alone due to some situations. I always had a fear in my mind of traveling alone due to many incidents that I have seen and heard in news, but now I have learned many skills not only self-defense skills but also how a person can attack and how we can be alert all the time. Now I do not fear to walk or travel alone. I feel that now I can be independent since I do not have to depend on my parents or guardians to drop or pick me up from places I really need to go even though if those places are near my home. If somebody will come to harm me now I can fight back against them and protect myself and other women. I now feel empowered
The fightback session that we had on the 7th of December 2018 was quite fruitful for us and me as well. We were able to talk about the things that we went through personally like harassment and stuff. Yes, I have been through harassment. Before the fightback session when I was harassed and I couldn’t do anything about it, I was in a freezing state on my mind, but since now I got fightback training I now know what to do in those cases and I have been really motivating and inspiration for us as now I am more aware of many types of scenarios. I feel that now if I or any other people I see in such a situation I know a good way to respond to it.
During the session, I have personally felt that this was really useful. I did not miss the physical class at all. It really helped. I could see all of us were totally engaged and we can take away various lessons on where it teaches us what is right and wrong consciousness in online safety and physically threatening situations. Some of the staff work on the field and make an onsite visit. We believe every worksite is not safer enough to work and travel during work time. So, I think this has given everyone some kind of security may not be complete but to a certain extent and we know the technique of self-protection but definitely I would say we need more of this.
This program from my personal experience is very essential for all the girls around our country and also around the globe because we can see that many girls are facing sexual violence in the form of vocal or mental or even physical torture. So, this program has helped me in a way that I am confident enough that if something happens to me, I can just fight back or at least fully settle things down or I can be mentally prepared for what is coming next. I think the fightback program is very important and every one of us should be aware of our surroundings and things that can happen to us while we are alone or even when we are with someone. We cannot expect or create that illusion that this is our second home or our second parents because the same parents can harm us. So, we should be aware every time, everywhere and this program is very essential for making us alert about those things that can happen to us in a public vehicle or in a temple, or even in a school. I am so happy that I did this program and it is very good for me.
My name is Anushka Sharma and I joined a 3-day Fightback Program 2 years back when I was in Grade 10. I got to learn a lot of things which is very essential in life especially for girls and I found the program really effective. So, talking from my own experience, at the start and end of the program, our trainers gave us the same sheet of papers where we need to tick the answers which we think are correct. At the end of the program, I could see my change of thoughts and perspective while filling the questionnaire. I feel that whoever has taken the Fightback course has seen the impact upon themselves. Not only practical sessions but also theoretical sessions give us the idea and knowledge about the consciousness and idea for dealing with dangerous situations. If anyone would ask me about joining Fightback classes then I would definitely say yes! Because the impact of Fightback may not be clearly visible at this moment but yes, we all shall see it in the future. To be honest, I may not know how it has helped me till now, but every second when I step out of my home till the end of the day, I have no fears in my heart of being attacked or seeing others being attacked because some way or the other, the Fightback program has given me strength and confidence to walk alone in my path and fight for others freedom. So, let’s have the courage to stand for ourselves and for others with the help of Fightback. I am really thankful to the Fightback team who provided us 3 days training. I would love to attend the session in the future as well.
Hi, I am Bibhusha Adhikari, a student of Apex Life School currently studying in grade 9. Fightback is an educational program where we can learn to be more confident, to be stronger not only physically but mentally and vocally too. Fightback teaches us techniques on how to tackle life threatening situations. We have been hearing a lot of incidents like, acid attack, rape and kidnapping etc. but we have never heard anybody saying that the girl fought for herself, the girl defended herself. There are only a few cases where women and girls can barely protect themselves but what we want is that all the women and girls need to be more confident about themselves, and that is what the Fightback program is empowering us. Fightback is doing a really great job by providing training to young girls and women all over Nepal. Thank you Fightback program. I would say that you are changing lives because what you do makes people feel so much more confident about themselves, makes them feel so much more secure, more protected because you are making girls and women stronger not only physically but mentally and vocally too. As there are lots of women and girls who go through mental depression and who are not strong vocally or physically, Fightback wants everyone to be strong mentally, vocally and physically so that they can protect themselves which is a really good thing. Personally as a student, I’d say that this training is wonderful and I’d like to thank Fightback for providing safety education to young girls and women for how to be more confident and feel more secure.
It has been a truly invaluable learning experience for me. I felt that over the duration of the session I gained a lot of knowledge and skill that will be beneficial to me not only now but for the future as well. From this session, I not only learned about self-defense skills but also about the situation awareness which I felt was very much important for us. We usually do not care much about the surroundings and the people who are so close to us and this can be a very dangerous threat. This training has taught me to be more aware and alert regarding these things and I personally found it very fruitful. I want to thank Fightback for this wonderful opportunity and would be more than happy to take this training in person in the future.
