Home-based care nurses at the Tehillah Community Collaborative Wellness Centre in Elsies River are fighting back and will receive free self-defence classes from Fight Back SA.
Over 50 carers go out on foot daily into various areas in Elsies River to provide palliative care to sick patients who are unable to make it to the day hospital, and some have fallen victim to robbers.
The carers received their first class on Thursday, and the energy was high.
The ladies were taught the submission principle, anti-abduction and anti-rape strategies.
The founder of Fight Back SA, Nicole Mirkin, said the organisation was established because women desperately need to learn how to defend themselves.
“We go into communities to provide women and young children with the skills they need to change the outcome of a violent situation and to basically curb and minimise the gender-based violence statistics,” she explained.
“With Fight Back training, a woman who is attacked does not necessary need to become a murder or rape stat; she might be attacked or harassed but she can defend herself and prevent that attack from becoming another murder, abduction, rape or kidnapping.”
Candice Beets from Uitsig delivers medication and said she was robbed at gunpoint two years ago.
“After receiving the Fight Back training, I am feeling much better and excited because I know how to fight back now,” she added.
“I was robbed of my phone while handing out tablets in Epping Forest.
“They waited until I handed the packet over to the patient and the one took out the gun and said ‘hey, give me that phone’.
“I was confused and scared, I didn’t know what to do so I just handed the phone over.”
Candice lost her 18-year-old brother Jade last year when he was shot while going to the shop, and said that she will teach her daughter and other relatives the moves she has learnt.
The founder of Tehillah, Magda Klein, added that she is worried about her staff who brave the gang-ridden areas every day to assist sick mense.
“Many times there are incidents where the carers get robbed, so it’s good to empower them to fight back to keep them safe.”
marsha.dean@inl.co.za