Dwarsrivier empowering girls
They slashed her throat and left her for dead. Alison survived and her story captivated South Africa. She has been tireless in her quest to "INpower" women and her lack of bitterness about what she went through has captured the nation.
SKHILA – Skhila Secondary School’s female teachers and grade eight pupils learned to defend themselves through the Women INpowered (WIP) project with Dwarsrivier Chrome Mine.
The event took place at Skhila Secondary School on Friday, September 21, and teachers and learners had fun in learning how to defend themselves using martial arts.
The session was led by Assore’s community economic development officer, Daleen Geldenhuys, and Dwarsrivier SED personnel, Berthilda Riba and Mark Grobbelaar of WIP.
According to Mark, women are taking their power back, and WIP is helping them to do so. WIP is described as “an extremely simple, easy-to-learn, yet devastatingly effective self-empowerment system that has been designed specifically for women to give them the mental and physical ability to make a choice in a threatening situation.”
Their aim is to change the way women view self-defense by seeing the power in being able to take control, and by doing so, changing the outcome of a situation.
WIP was initiated by Mark, Lynette, and Alison Botha. Mark, who has been practising karate for 35 years, gave up his day job in November 2012 in order to take it up full-time. “Do what you love,” is Mark’s motto, and WIP has a large part to play in that.
WIP is about giving women the tools they need to empower themselves in a situation where they feel physically threatened.
One of the other co-founders, Alison, partnered with Mark on the project.
In December 1994, Alison went through one of the most traumatic experiences any human being could go through. She was abducted outside her home by two men who raped, stabbed and disemboweled her.
They slashed her throat and left her for dead. Alison survived and her story captivated South Africa. She has been tireless in her quest to “INpower” women and her lack of bitterness about what she went through has captured the nation.
Mark made contact with Alison, whom he had known several years before, and discussed what Alison had gone through. They both agreed that there was a need for self-INpowerment, a system designed specifically for women of all ages.
