Fighting for a Second Chance

Odenton, MD - Baltimore-area women gathered at Annapolis Defense & Security in Odenton, Maryland last Saturday to take part in a women's self-protection workshop called Escape to Gain Safety. Escape to Gain Safety is a part of the worldwide effort known as the Damini Project, which is named for the young victim of gang rape in Delhi, India in 2012. The program began as reaction to the outrage of that heinous crime, and since 2012 has provided free self-defense training for thousands of women across the globe. The workshop raised $420 for victims of domestic violence in the Baltimore area.

The program was lead by the instructor team of the Maryland Jeet Kune Do Academy, a local martial arts and self-defense school associated with Annapolis Defense & Security. The Academy team, lead by instructor JB Jaeger, took the women through armed and unarmed self-defense against a variety of attacks. In addition, Guru Jhun Occidental, instructor at Flow Strikes in northern Virginia, drove up to support the cause and assist instruction. The Escape to Gain Safety program was created based on programs originally taught to law enforcement and Special operations units and was designed to be learned quickly and applied immediately. The women began their training by learning about situational awareness and pre-violence indicators and strategies to avoid conflict before moving on to learning how to use improvised weapons to provide themselves with equalizers against larger attackers, and then empty hand self-defense against a variety of standing and ground attacks. Finally, the participants were able to test their new skills in an alive environment, as MDJKD coach Chris Pedersen suited up in protective gear and each woman was able to drill their protection techniques and strategies with full force against him in a simulated attack situation.

"It was awesome," participant Jennifer Smith says. Smith, who lives and works in Baltimore took the course to learn how to protect herself in a worse case scenario. "The course is welcoming for all skill levels. JB and his crew are great teachers."

"This program is so important to us," JB Jaeger said after the workshop. "We train a lot of different people here, from civilians, to law enforcement, to military, but the bottom line, the common denominator is that we all have a woman in our life we care for. It's our Mom, it's our sister, it's our daughter, wife, girlfriend, or even ourselves. Because of our love for that person, we want them to be safe and protected, and that's why we do this. In the end, it's not about fear, it's not about violence, it's love, and I'm glad we were able to do our small part in helping."