Safe and Strong: girls’ personal safety and self-defence

Prepared, confident and never alone

Safe and Strong is a short course of weekly lessons, led by trained women, that helps our girls understand that their body belongs to them, set boundaries, use a clear voice, ask for help and, if it is ever necessary, free themselves and reach safety. It runs alongside its companion track, Growing Up Well, on puberty and menstrual health, and it builds on the karate and yoga our students already practise.

Three principles in every session

• Safety is never a girl’s fault. Responsibility for harm always lies with the person who causes it.
• Escape first. Every physical skill aims to get free and reach a safe adult, not to win a fight.
• No girl stands alone. Skills are only half of safety. Trusted adults, a clear way to report and a protective school are the other half.

What the research shows

Courses like this are promising, but the evidence is mixed, and we want to be honest about it. A trial in Malawi found fewer assaults among girls who took part. The largest trial so far, in Nairobi with girls aged about 10 to 14, did not find a clear reduction. So we do not promise that the course makes any girl safe. We aim for what it can do: greater knowledge and confidence, earlier help-seeking, and a school that responds well when a girl speaks.

What we adapted, and what we left out

One of our starting points was a self-defence handbook written for adult women. We kept its core ideas: stay calm, keep the goal simple, commit fully and get away. We left out techniques designed to cause serious injury, frightening statistics and any graphic description of assault. Children learn about unsafe touch, unsafe secrets and unsafe situations through neutral stories and pictures.

How we keep girls safe while we teach

Teaching children about their bodies and boundaries can lead to disclosures, so the school must be ready before session 1. If it is not, the start date moves and the order does not change.

• A written safeguarding policy and staff code of conduct, a named female focal person and a deputy, and a clear way of responding to any concern.
• Written guardian consent with a simple opt-out, and any girl may sit out an activity.
• Women lead every session, and no lesson takes place one-to-one behind closed doors.
• A follow-up check with each class after sessions 1 and 3.
• Anything a girl shares stays confidential, and no photographs are taken without separate written consent.

Boys, mothers and staff

Prevention cannot rest on girls alone. Short companion sessions for boys, led by a male teacher, cover respect, boundaries and bullying (whether they run in this pilot is still to be confirmed). Mothers are invited to an orientation before the course begins, and fathers receive a clear information note. Staff receive child-protection training, and the female facilitators receive their own training before they teach.