EVERY Jamaican girl must feel strong, confident and capable of protecting herself by learning basic self-defence techniques.

That’s the view of reigning Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2023 Aundrene Cameron, who recently launched her official Queen Project, titled ‘Girls Who Fight Back”.

“It will also teach girls how to assess their surroundings and how to ensure their safety as much as possible. It will teach girls the importance of being their sister’s keeper and how they can ensure not just their own safety but the safety of others,” Cameron said.

The Festival Queen said the project is also aimed at informing girls about abuse and the different ways it can manifest and to understand when they are in dangerous situations.

Furthermore, workshops will be held to instruct the girls in basic self-defence methods, enabling them to protect themselves against potential threats.

Girls Who Fight Back launched on February 17 at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in Kingston.

The undertaking is in keeping with one stipulation of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), organiser of the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen Competition, a highlight of the Emancipation and Independence celebrations, that contestants engage in activities focused on community development.

Cameron said that self-defence techniques were included in the project to teach girls how they can get out of certain situations.

“The aim of self-defence is actually to get away and that is what a lot of people don’t realise. It is not to stay and fight until the other person is done for. It is to get yourself out of that situation, so if we can get our girls out of those situations, they will be better off,” she argued, noting that there are simple yet effective techniques to fend off attackers.

Additionally, she said that girls will learn to recognise potential threats, as a lot of them are unaware that they are in danger because many of their perpetrators are known to them.

“So you have to teach them to be more sensitive and more aware of the different ways in which abuse can occur,” she added.

Cameron said that her passion for empowering young girls stems from her deep concern over the escalating violence against women and girls, especially in St Catherine.

She referred to the murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe, a student of Braeton Primary and Infant School, who was abducted on June 8 last year while waiting to be picked up by her mother. She was found later that day along Roosevelt Road in St Andrew with her throat slashed and died at the Bustamante Hospital for Children two days later.

“That was one of the incidents that hit me, and it was within St Catherine and that is how I started thinking that there must be something that can be done about this. Within that time, we were seeing a lot of these types of crime and I wanted to do something to change that,” she said.

Cameron said the project endeavours to reach at least one primary and secondary school in each county. The project will first be implemented within the parish of St Catherine at Ensom City Primary School, Spanish Town, and later in St Elizabeth and Portland.

According to Cameron, the plan is to have one-day workshops with at least 40 students who will be drawn from nearby schools.

The Festival Queen said that demonstrations will be done by martial arts champion for the Caribbean, Shiaeine Blake, as well as instructors from martial arts groups. Cameron said that she is also hoping to livestream one of the sessions.

She urged sponsors to be a part of the initiative “that seeks to empower and to address the new issues in our culture”.

“The only way we can make a better Jamaica is by investing in things that can help Jamaica to become better by empowering those who are vulnerable,” she added.

She said that efforts will be made by the Project Committee to work alongside child-protection entities, the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the National Parenting Support Commission, the Office of the Children’s Advocate, specialists in self-defence, social workers and other trained professionals who will be invited to speak at workshops.