Causecast

by SARAH NELSON, Contributing Writer

They may look sweet, but you don’t want to mess with the elderly women of the Koragocho slum of Nairobi, Kenya. They will fight back. Literally. With crime, particularly the rape of older women, in the region reaching rates that leave police unable to regulate effectively, would-be victims are left to their own devices of self-protection. So, the grannies of Nairobi have taken to self-defense of the Asian-persuasion, schooling themselves in karate.

For decades, crime against women in Kenya has gone relatively unpunished. Men get away with rape and murder, while the government fails to provide adequate housing for the country’s millions of urban poor residing in slums. Ignorance and indifference fuel the violent crimes as men justify the rape of women as a means of cleansing them for their sins. Older women are targeted because of their perceived inability to fight back and the likelihood that they are AIDS free. U.N. reports suggest that the increase in sexual violence in a country is evidence of the collapse of social order.

In Kenya, the political debacle of 2007 has contributed greatly to the increase in violent crime, and with the local and national law enforcement unable or unwilling to provide the necessary protection, women face the greatest brunt of civil frustration. In addition to the daunting political obstacles, addressing the issue of rape in Kenya is an uphill battle for women in a country where marital rape is not recognized as a criminal act and rape by police or state officials constituting torture is perfectly legal. With the government of Kenya failing miserably to secure basic human rights, women are left powerless and susceptible to potential attack.

The San Francisco-based organization, I’m Worth Defending, is working to train Kenyan women, ranging from their 40s to 80s, in self-defense to drastically reduce their chances of falling victim to a violent crime encounter. I’m Worth Defending was founded in 2001 after writer/activist, Lee Sinclair, visited Nairobi with a mission of finding a sustainable, responsible organization working to avert the AIDS crisis in Kenya. What she stumbled upon in the process was the neglected issue of violence against women and children in the country. Sinclair first began teaching children self-defense techniques before working with the older women of the slums. Currently, the organization partners with the Dolphin Anti-Rape Outreach to train the women in defense techniques.

Since the beginning of the program, perception of the Koragocho slum grannies has changed drastically. There are whispers of how dangerous they are. That they are trained fighters. That they use their walking sticks as deadly weapons of destruction. I’m telling you – you don’t want to mess with these women.

The new I’m Worth Defending program will launch this fall. The message the organization hopes to convey to women involved is that they are powerful and capable of defending themselves.

Here’s the CNN spot on the Karate grannies:

Organizations around the world are working to end all crime that violates human rights, including the rape of women. Amnesty International USA relies on public support in not only revealing issues of human rights violation, but also taking action in ending all forms of abuse. You can join the cause or donate to their efforts around the world. And of course, you can throw some to I’m Worth Defending folks too.

Photo by frerieke, flickr.