Self-defence in the News - No. 16

Fears for girls' safety as course cut

Fears for girls' safety as course cut


JESSICA SUTTON

14/05/2011

ROBERT KITCHIN/The Manawatu Standard

TAKING BACK POWER: This could be the last time these Feilding Intermediate School students practise their self-defence moves, after the Government cut funding to the national self-defence programme.

Self-defence teacher Julie Goldingham fears young girls' safety is being undermined after the Government announced it would cut funding next month to the self-defence programme she teaches.

For the past 16 years, the Girls' Self Defence project has taught more than 77,000 young women in schools throughout New Zealand, but from June 30 it will no longer be on offer.

The self-defence classes teach 12-year-old girls how to keep themselves safe from violence and sexual abuse.

It costs the Ministry of Social Development just under $400,000 to fund the programme each year, but this funding is being cut as the ministry reprioritises its spending.

Mrs Goldingham has been teaching self-defence at Feilding, Monrad, and Ross intermediate schools for 15 years and will be out of a job next month.

"We are deeply concerned that the loss of this project will undermine the safety and wellbeing of girls throughout New Zealand," she said.

"It's not just all about kicks and punches either.

"It's an intensive programme that is designed to make girls more confident in fighting back, should they find themselves in a situation."

She teaches about 1000 girls from around the central North Island every year, and is worried those she has not been able to teach will be without the skills they need.

"So many of the girls I've taught have said they have not known what to do in an abuse or violent situation before the course.

"It's scary to think the kids won't have the training to look after themselves."

Several girls have come to her and confessed they had been abused.

"About 25 per cent of girls are likely to be sexually abused before they reach the age of 16 and if they are from a small, Maori community, 30 per cent of girls have been," Mrs Goldingham said.

"It's shocking really, and those girls need to know how to fend for themselves."

Mrs Goldingham and the project's other teachers are calling for parents and the community to get onboard and fight to get the funding reinstated.

"We will be lobbying. We want everyone to write letters to the Government, to the ministry and to anyone who will listen. The more the politicians can hear our concerns, the more we have a chance of getting it back."

For more information go to wsdn.org.nz.

- Manawatu Standard