Campaign to train children in self-defence launched

The second edition of a campaign aimed at training young people in how to defend themselves when in danger has been launched in Accra.

Known as the Safety-For-AlI campaign, it was launched last Saturday, to among others, teach young people non-physical self-defence, how to be safe on the internet and what to do when in danger.

About 1000 students from junior high schools and senior high schools in the Greater Accra Region will be trained.

Campaign

A Lead Instructor at Candace Taekwondo Academy, and Convener of the campaign, Hannah Humphrey, explained that 50 students from 20 schools would be trained to become ambassadors of the campaign.

She noted that the campaign was initiated following the kidnap case of the three Takoradi girls in 2018 and 2019.

She said after the incident, it became her goal to train young people the techniques of keeping themselves safe.

“Safety for all campaign was birthed in 2019, when the three Takoradi girls were kidnapped and there were other girls who did not return home from school.

“I, therefore, decided to initiate the campaign to teach such girls how to protect themselves without using force,” she noted.

She said the maiden campaign launched in 2019 was focused on kidnapping, self-defence, first aid and self-awareness training against kidnapping but said this year’s campaign would focus on terrorism.

“This year, we decided to go a step further.

Ghana has been on high alert for terrorism and the government is also creating awareness of it.

“We have also decided that this year we will dedicate the safety for all campaign toward terrorism, where children will be educated on terrorism, personal safety and self-defence,” she noted.

She said expert from the Ghana Army and Taekwondo Masters and the Ghana National Taekwondo Team had been brought in as facilitators to train the students.

Self-defence

The Ghana National Taekwondo Team Coach, Augustus K. Agbozo, is the trainer who will take the children through basic self-defence.

He said they would teach the children how to use physical force to defend themselves, soft defence such as sharing their location to someone when out and also how to call for help when in danger.

“Self- defence starts from where you find yourself, that is, what to do in order not to put yourself in an environment to be attacked.

“Previously, we wait for someone to attack before you defend yourself, now we have designed models to teach people what to do before an attack,” he said.

He called on benevolent organisations to support the campaign to enable them to reach a lot of schools across the country.

The Safety Manager of Vivo Energy Ghana Limited, who was the chairman for the event, Joseph Kankam, reiterated the importance of safety and said safety was about self-discipline and compliance to basic rules.

He, therefore, called for the need to prioritise pre-safety measures rather than the post safety measures.

A guest facilitator and expert on terrorism response, Major Miezah Blay Anyimiah, also noted terrorism activities in the sub-region, noting that the campaign was crucial to sensitise children in terrorism and how to act when it occurred.