A violent attack by bandits led Bolivian Lydia Meta to the martial art of taekwondo. Three years later, she trains other indigenous women to defend themselves against gender-based violence in the South American country.
Mita says she would have died if neighbors hadn’t come out of their homes to scare off the attackers who were dragging her outside her front door as they tried to steal her purse.
After the attack, she vowed that she would never feel helpless again.
She joined a women-only class at the Warm Power Taekwondo studio in Bolivia’s second city, El Alto. Warmi means “woman” in the indigenous Quechua language.
His enthusiasm was such that the founder soon asked him to join the training team, specifically helping to translate instructions into Aymara, another indigenous language of Bolivia.
“I didn’t know how to defend myself, now I try to help other women lose that fear,” said the 56-year-old shopkeeper and community health secretary.
“This is violence prevention work.”
Official statistics show that 8 out of 10 women and girls in Bolivia experience physical violence at least once in their lifetime.
“This is a violent country for women,” said Lucia Vargas of the Coordinadora de la Mujer, or Women’s Coordinator, rights advocacy group.
In 2023, more than 51,000 women reported being victims of violence. Husbands or partners were the perpetrators in the vast majority of cases.
Warmy Power was launched by Laura Rocca and Kimberly Noosa – both taekwondo black belts – in 2015.
Noosa, who has been practicing martial arts for 18 years, said, “The solution to violence is not violence, but learning to defend ourselves can save our lives.”
Rocca is a trained psychologist who said she took up the discipline despite her father insisting it was a male preserve.
Together, the couple has trained more than 35,000 women across the country.
In the class in El Alto, most of the women are local and engaged in informal trade.