Women's Day: Support Boxgirls International
Last week Heather Cameron, Founder of Boxgirls International came to visit our betterplace office. One of those encounters which makes our hearts beat faster.
Boxgirls International, based in Berlin, links innovative projects around the world using boxing as a catalyst for social change for women and girls. The first international branch is in Nairobi (with Cape Town and Hanoi to follow this year) and has the support of Barack Obamas Schwester Auma
Boxing improves girls self-esteem and resilience, communicative skills and team spirit. Heather herself is from Canada and is a junior professor at the Free University on Berlin. In her own words:
I love playing with new ideas and finding ways to create exciting projects which get people active in their communities. Currently I am working on two exciting projects: Boxgirls International: a running and boxing project for girls in major urban centres around the world and Social Startup, a non profit organisation dedicated to building the capacity of social entrepreneurs based in Berlin. I studied philosophy and political theory and think of our sports projects as experiments in participatory democracy, civic education and leadership development. I try to carry this enthusiasm to my students at the Freie Universitatet in Berlin.
After an hour of talking about boxing, donations and networks, Yvonne, Josefina and myself were fully enthused and now want to 1. hang up a punching bag from the high ceilings in our office loft, 2. spent the next team outing in Boxgirls International boxing ring on Marheinekeplatz and 3. support Boxgirls International wherever we can.