Mary & Ali's FairFight Outreach India 2022

Hello! Thanks for reading this appeal – we do appreciate your attention in these busy times.

This autumn, we are fundraising for an ambitious karate and self-protection outreach to India. We’re providing support for our local partners and their missions - building on previous work with more professional development for the leaders on the ground. We will also provide direct coaching with classes and seminars.

I’ll be leading a 2 day seminar in Lucknow to take the all-female self-defence instructor team to the next level in their training. These magnificent women deliver physical and psychological personal security training across the whole province, training literally thousands of poor and vulnerable girls. The most effective research on violence prevention and management is not easily available in Hindi, so my job is to assimilate, adapt and advise the team with the best Hindi I can manage (and supported by interpreters as well for the most complex layers!)

From there we will be travelling back to Varanasi for our karate girls. This is now the seventh year of the karate partnership and the impact on the students continues to be phenomenal. I’ve documented this extensively in the past (please see fairfightvaranasi.wordpress.com for more). We’ve learned that bringing guest instructors to support the students’ success in competition really grows their confidence and skills as well as enhancing the status and development of the local club. This year four of the girls took silver medals in an international competition in Kolkata for which they had the challenging experience of travelling well away from all they know and stepping onto the mats in a competition of more than 500 people.

We’re very lucky to have Ali Nyoni as our guest instructor this time. Ali is a FairFight ambassador, elite karate coach/competitor, and incredible human. His extensive experience at the highest level of world karate will be a tremendous asset to the instructors and students. Our plan here is for him to spend several days training the students at a personal level and then lead a big seminar for the wider karate community in Varanasi. Again, this is to allow us to do as much coaching as possible for impact, while still supporting the local club’s reputation and potential impact with other institutions. In turn, this helps to expand martial arts for young Indian women, opening up the benefits of assertive, structured physical training and a network of support beyond their family groups.

If you’re still reading (thank you!) you might wonder why we are fundraising in gofundme as opposed to using the direct link to FairFight.nl. Good question, for which there are 3 main answers:

1) FairFight is a small NGO staffed by volunteers. This means that money we raise is earmarked for direct costs in the community and for a skeleton level of admin. Donors know that their money will be used for education and for karate supplies as efficiently as possible. The costs to run a full outreach come from a very limited budget and it falls to the volunteers to pay their way – a useful deterrent to any voluntourists.

2) Project costs have been hit with the global inflation issue. Our flight tickets now cost three times as much as pre-Covid. The expansion of the project means more travel inside India. As project coordinator, I have to choose new accommodation for the team. Previously, I’ve vetted extremely cheap locations where the food is safe. It has helped team costs to stay in cafes typically £7 per night, for example. With both parts of the project now in new areas, I will need to choose more expensive accommodation for the team as I cannot risk them getting taken out by dysentery or other diseases (as has happened many times in the past). We have work to do, both here and when we get home, so the impact of serious illness must be built into the risk assessment. And, unsurprisingly, there are many hotels which didn’t survive the pandemic …and the remainder cost a lot more!

3) Both Ali and myself are full time karate teachers. We, too, face increased costs at all levels both professionally and personally. Finding a spare £2500 down the back of the sofa to fund our travel, subsistence and accommodation for seminars in India is not really an option. So, we must stretch out our hands to the karate and self-defence community to ask for help in funding and sharing this work. We know the same factors affect all of you, which makes us even more grateful for your help. I cannot emphasise this enough – every £1 counts. I can answer any question you want to ask about the work that we are doing – my blog has documented it for several years now and we also have this wonderful documentary which makes me feel quite emotional about the students FairFight has been able to work with over the last 7 years or so. We have already started to put a dent into this with help from the stellar Jindokai community; from the awesome Tommy Joe Moore; the consistently generous Mollie’s Café in Wallingford; the wise men behind the Bunkai Bash; and Iain Abernethy’s dojo in Cockermouth (they rashly invited me to play with weaponry). Many of you have given a lot in the past, and it’s all appreciated. We need a lot of money this time, so whether with shares, likes or cash… we really value your support.

Mary Stevens

Project Coordinator FairFight India