Zimbabwe girl teaches martial arts to fight child marriage

Zimbabwean girl Natsiraishe Maritsa has been training Taekwondo (TKD) since age 5 and is now 16, so it’s fair to say she knows a thing or two about martial arts. For those that don’t know, Taekwondo is a striking-based art that specifically focuses on kicking. Anyway, it’s not that Natsiraishe Maritsa trains TKD that is the story here…it’s how she uses it to empower other women and girls in her local community.

Teaching Taekwondo is part of her Vulnerable Underaged People’s Auditorium initiative that she set up to combat child marriage which is problematic in Zimbabwe. Although outlawed, the practice still goes on with some sources claiming 5% of Zimbabwean women are married before they turn 15. Obviously, this is a problem.

Through TKD, Maritsa teaches the importance of self-confidence which shows how martial arts are about mental strength as much as physical prowess. During these sessions, women are also invited to talk about past experiences of abuse. In short, the TKD training act almost as a therapy session were people can have open and intimate conversations which may not other happen.

Interestingly, Taekwondo is still a fairly obscure martial art in Zimbabwe, so it’s great to see Maritsa arming vulnerable youngsters with the physical and mental weapons to combat abuse and forced marriage.