Congratulations Toby Israel for Achieving ESD Global Level 2 Instructor Status!
The ESD Global community is proud to share that Toby Israel, who just started Mujeres Fuertes in Costa Rica, achieved ESD Global Level 2 Instructor status this month, teaching more than 100 hours in her community!
A participant in the ESD Global Level 1 training in New York in 2018 and Level 2 training in Costa Rica in 2019, Toby is an author, editor, and facilitator, Empowerment Self-Defense instructor and yoga instructor. She regularly facilitates workshops and retreats to empower, inspire, and transform. Toby currently lives in Costa Rica, revealing that she "came for a Masters degree in Media, Peace and Conflict Studies from the UN-mandated University for Peace and stayed for the papaya, sunshine, and conscious community."
Toby contributed to ESD Global’s online series of Empowerment Self Defense webinars through a presentation she gave with Amy Schmidt entitled: Incorporating Yoga and Mindfulness into Empowerment Self Defense. The timely webinar explored how yoga, mindfulness, and ESD are connected—and how they can complement each other. Toby and Amy shared some basic yoga and mindfulness techniques and concepts that anyone can bring into their ESD classroom. The talk covered the benefits of using mindfulness and yoga in ESD, core mindfulness themes and how to integrate them, class structures and more.
"ESD has deeply enriched both my personal and professional life, teaching me important lessons on boundaries and assertive communication, inspiring my writing and creative projects, and bringing a new sense of purpose to my work as a facilitator. It is an honor to bear witness to the real and lasting empowerment my students experience thanks to ESD, and I look forward to seeing this method become a true global movement”, says Toby.
ESD Global trains hundreds of ESD instructors, who in turn, train thousands of women, children, refugees & other vulnerable individuals. From 2017 - 2019, ESD Global conducted 7 teacher trainings in 3 countries. During this period, 101 ESD instructors graduated and went on to make an impact all over the world, with new instructors now teaching in 49 countries! Their students include victims of trafficking, girls at risk, rural women, social workers, refugees, students, mothers and daughters, hotel workers and more. Thanks to hundreds of motivated ESD Global instructors, we are able to spread ESD to all corners of the world.
