Established in the poor and disenfranchised neighbourhoods of Nairobi, the programme engages with girls and young women who are subject to extreme inequality and disempowerment. Girls often marry young, get pregnant in their teens, have little or no control over finances and tend to drop out of school much earlier than boys. Typically they do not get any education and can be subject to a disproportionately high level of violence, mostly perpetrated within the family. It is a vicious cycle anchored in a cultural pattern.
If you grow up in communities like this, you are likely to believe this is the norm, but Boxgirls is changing this by challenging stereotypes. The programme reaches out to schools to engage with the girls, providing them with boxing training, peer coaching and related discussions about life experiences and life skills, helping them to build skills and confidence in themselves and encouraging change.
