A highly successful Guardian Girls Karate Seminar was held in Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, this past weekend, marking a significant step forward for Karate’s project to empower women through Karate training.

Organised by the Irish Karate Federation ONAKAI Karate Ireland, the event marks Ireland's official launch of the Guardian Girls Karate programme, after the presentation of the project last year during the Karate 1-Premier League in Dublin.

The seminar was headed by Certified WKF Guardian Girls instructors Carol Grogan and Eimear Porter. Over the course of the two-hour session, Grogan and Porter introduced participants to essential physical and psychological self-defence skills. Topics included the psychology of self-defence, threat identification, fundamental striking techniques, and defensive manoeuvres against various types of grabs and holds.

“Recognising the ever-challenging society in which we all live, the delivery of this programme aims to empower young girls and women through engagement in self-defence. Participation in this programme aims to equip participants with the basic knowledge and practical skills of how to keep themselves safe from any form of gender-based violence that they may encounter. Engagement from all participants was fantastic during our official launch event, with all women thoroughly enjoying the session, which we feel they found very beneficial and informative. To be able to support women and young girls is something that Eimear and I are extremely proud and privileged to be able to do,” said WKF Guardian Girls Instructor Carol Grogan

The Guardian Girls Karate programme is a global initiative founded by the World Karate Federation (WKF) in collaboration with the Koyamada International Foundation (KIF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The project’s core mission is to empower women and equip them with the skills to defend against gender-based violence through specialised karate training.

The Guardian Girls Karate programme is currently in its second phase of global expansion, reaching communities worldwide through partnerships with national karate federations. Following the program’s successful first phase, which coincided with major WKF events, the initiative has now expanded to individual national federations. Ireland joins a growing list of countries, including Jamaica, Curaçao, and Italy, that have hosted seminars as part of this phase. By the end of 2023, eight national federations—including Ireland, Mexico, Jamaica, Italy, Germany, Canada, Spain, and the United States—had certified Guardian Girls instructors trained through the WKF’s Certification course.

As the Guardian Girls Karate Project continues to expand, this recent seminar in Ireland exemplifies how karate can serve as a powerful tool for promoting gender equality and equipping women with practical skills for self-defence.