Project overview
FairFight set up its first project in Marondera, Zimbabwe, in January 2015. This project has been run in collaboration with the students and staff of Nagle House Girls High. The classes are run by Sensei Gerald Muusha, 4th Dan Shitoryu Karate from the Kofukan Association, and his Senpai Prichard Zishumba. We are also supported by the Peterhouse group of schools, which provides our team with accommodation during our impact visits, and where Sensei Gerald also teaches karate.
Number of Girls |
16 regular girls |
Local Trainer |
Gerald Muusha |
Local Partner |
Nagle House Girls High |
Impact Visits |
January 2015, 2016, 2017, October 2018 |
Project Stage |
Stage 2 moving into 3 |
The Girls
Here are some of the regular FairFight students from Nagle House. These are the girls who grade and come to competitions.
Pictures by ©Myrthe Minnaert
Pictures by ©Myrthe Minnaert
Impact Visits
Impact Visit 2015
2015 was the start of it all: ten students alongside two staff members of Erasmus University College Rotterdam set out to start FairFight. This impact visit revolved around setting the stage: teaching the first groups of girls at Nagle House and supporting our Gerald Muusha. Our team managed to create a sustainable environment in which the girls of Nagle House could explore three martial arts and selfdefense systems: Karate, Tang Soo Do and kickboxing. At the end of this first project, around thirty girls signed up for Gerald’s class at Nagle House. FairFight also explored the possibility of setting up a collaboration with Monte Cassino school but due to the remoteness of the school, this became unfeasible.
Impact Visit 2016
In 2016, we professionalized, bringing not one but five black belts to Zimbabwe to support Gerald and his students (Ginie Servant, Mark Caddy, Emma Bouterse, Pearla Papiernik and Floris Eland). The goal of this project was to reach out to more schools, strengthen our ties with the local community and reach out to the Old Hararian martial arts network in the capital city Harare in order to build a stronger relationship within the martial arts community in Zimbabwe. Several important achievements were made during this trip:
Impact Visit 2017
In 2017, due to an unstable political situation in Zimbabwe, we sent a small delegation to maintain the project at Stage 2. Mark Caddy and Nivedita Sarveswaran came back to Nagle House to teach the girls and engage with the staff, renewed our ties with Marondera Karate Club and the Old Hararians, explored a new initiative to build a community dojo in Ruwa, and organised the transfer of Marondera Karate Club's training ground to the Ida Wekwako Old Age Home.
Impact Visit 2018
In 2018, we focused on three goals: bringing in wider support from the community, improving the karate curriculum, and evaluating our impact on the girls. To fulfill these goals, we engaged in the following activities:
2015 was the start of it all: ten students alongside two staff members of Erasmus University College Rotterdam set out to start FairFight. This impact visit revolved around setting the stage: teaching the first groups of girls at Nagle House and supporting our Gerald Muusha. Our team managed to create a sustainable environment in which the girls of Nagle House could explore three martial arts and selfdefense systems: Karate, Tang Soo Do and kickboxing. At the end of this first project, around thirty girls signed up for Gerald’s class at Nagle House. FairFight also explored the possibility of setting up a collaboration with Monte Cassino school but due to the remoteness of the school, this became unfeasible.
Impact Visit 2016
In 2016, we professionalized, bringing not one but five black belts to Zimbabwe to support Gerald and his students (Ginie Servant, Mark Caddy, Emma Bouterse, Pearla Papiernik and Floris Eland). The goal of this project was to reach out to more schools, strengthen our ties with the local community and reach out to the Old Hararian martial arts network in the capital city Harare in order to build a stronger relationship within the martial arts community in Zimbabwe. Several important achievements were made during this trip:
- We engaged with girls from two more schools; Monte Cassino and St Francis. They were not able to join the FairFight programme, but visiting them made us better known in the community.
- We helped Gerald get a full-time job as karate teacher in different locations;
- A meeting and training session with the Old Hararians;
- Belt exams were conducted for the girls at Nagle House;
- Gerald and our other instructors from Marondera Karate Club developed a training format that would be useful for all schools he teaches at, no matter how big a group would be;
- Not only the girls joined in our karate training, but so did parents, teachers and even the school’s nun
Impact Visit 2017
In 2017, due to an unstable political situation in Zimbabwe, we sent a small delegation to maintain the project at Stage 2. Mark Caddy and Nivedita Sarveswaran came back to Nagle House to teach the girls and engage with the staff, renewed our ties with Marondera Karate Club and the Old Hararians, explored a new initiative to build a community dojo in Ruwa, and organised the transfer of Marondera Karate Club's training ground to the Ida Wekwako Old Age Home.
Impact Visit 2018
In 2018, we focused on three goals: bringing in wider support from the community, improving the karate curriculum, and evaluating our impact on the girls. To fulfill these goals, we engaged in the following activities:
- We organised workshops with the teachers and parents of the girls at Nagle House to discuss local people's perceptions of karate and how those might be made to fit with the ethos of karate. As a result of these workshops, it was agreed that FairFight would design an information booklet on karate for Nagle House, while Gerald Muusha would open a new class for parents, teachers and alumni of Nagle House at the school on Fridays.
- We awarded the first title of Ambassador of Change to Tinashe Munemo. She will represent FairFight in the community, advocating for karate and women's empowerment.
- Sensei Gonzalo Villarubia, 6th Dan Shitoryu, went over the karate curriculum with Sensei Gerald to improve the teaching quality standards in all of his groups across Zimbabwe. They devised a curriculum for all kyus and up to 3rd Dan based on Sensei Gonzalo's curriculum in the Netherlands. Sensei Gonzalo also spent considerable time training with Sempais Prichard and Madeline who will take on bigger responsibilities with teaching classes.
- We graded three yellow belts, two green belts, two purple (blue) belts and one black belt at Nagle House, with an emphasis on the moral responsibility that comes with each new grade.
- Myrthe Minnaert conducted an in depth impact evaluation with the girls, the local karate team, the girls' teachers and parents and other local stakeholders in the project, based on interviews. This impact evaluation will form the basis of our plans for the future of the project.