Celebrating Two Years of ESD Global!

Wow! I am humbled and proud of what the ESD Global community has accomplished in our first two years. 101 women from 39 countries are now teaching Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) as Level 1 graduates. They are teaching life saving-skills to children, women and men in communities around the world, from Albania, Amenia, Australia, and Brazil, to Chile, Costa Rica, Greece, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and the US, all the while being supported by a dedicated team of mentors and staff.

The energy and excitement our graduates share in their programs fills me with pride. Their passion and commitment to doing whatever they can to leave the world a better place than they found it inspires me.

In 2019, with our global partners, The UN University for Peace, The Starfish Foundation, Global Whole Being Fund, the YMCA International Judo Camp, and El HaLev, we ran trainings in Costa Rica, the islands of Lesvos and Samos in Greece, and the USA, building regional capacity in Latin America, Europe, Asia, North America and the South Pacific.

We are reaching vulnerable populations including refugees, Girl Scouts, Indigenous leaders, UN Diplomats, LGBTQ Activists, university students, and service workers. ESD Global graduates are forming new IMPACT Self-Defense programs in North Dakota, Australia and Costa Rica. And we have been giving support to other programs like Fightback Nepal, Empower Wyoming, and IMPACT Personal Safety of Colorado.

Our Men’s Incubator charted a pathway for boys and men to learn ESD, and our Research Summit brought together thought leaders to identify research priorities for the coming years.

The innovation continues in 2020 as we co-host The First Global Violence Prevention Education Conference with El HaLev at their headquarters in Jerusalem, Israel. We are proud of our growing capacity to deliver instructor trainings for co-ed programs where men and women model working together as equals to deliver training programs in Spanish,and to provide resources in multiple languages.

We need your generous support to make our dreams for 2020 a reality. Together, we will train even more women to teach ESD in their communities, get an online resource library up and running, and to see the men and boys programs fully launched.

Are you excited? I am!

~ Yehudit Zicklin-Sidikman, ESD Global President and Founder