Self-Defense and Yoga for Refugee Women on Lesvos

Thank you for your support of our project. We are immensely grateful for your donations, which have enabled us to empower women living on Lesvos through self-defense and yoga classes.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we temporarily suspended operations in order to protect our volunteers, staff, and participants. We used this time to plan how we could continue to provide our services in a safe way upon reopening. We want to assure our donors that the money raised so far for this project has been reserved for when operations resume.

We are now excited to announce that we will be restarting our program. We will be taking strict precautions to ensure that participants and facilitators are kept safe by implementing social distancing, providing masks and sanitizer, and utilizing outdoor space when possible. In addition, we will continue to vigilantly monitor the situation and adapt as needed.

Starting in September (COVID-19 permitting), our two teachers will be leading a 7-week course. These classes offer women more than instruction on physical self-defense; they build emotional self-confidence by exploring boundary-setting, communication strategies, and other coping mechanisms for the challenging situations they face inside and out of the camp.

With your support, we are hoping to make our program available on an ongoing basis and to expand our services to other vulnerable groups, such as unaccompanied minors.

We thank you again for your help in allowing us to provide these critical services to women and other vulnerable populations on Lesvos.