El Alto, Bolivia – After surviving a violent robbery attempt that could have cost her life, Lidia Mayta found empowerment and purpose in the martial art of taekwondo. Her journey has led her to help train other Indigenous women in self-defense techniques to combat the prevalent gender-based violence in Bolivia.
Following the terrifying incident outside her home, where neighbors intervened to save her, Mayta vowed to never feel helpless again. In response to this trauma, she joined an all-women’s taekwondo class at the Warmi Power studio in El Alto, Bolivia’s second-largest city. The studio, whose name means “woman” in Quechua, is dedicated to empowering women through self-defense training.
Mayta’s dedication and enthusiasm impressed the studio’s founders, who invited her to join the training team. She now plays a vital role in translating instructions into Aymara, one of Bolivia’s indigenous languages, making the training accessible to a wider audience.
“This is a job of violence prevention,” Mayta, a 56-year-old shopkeeper and community health secretary, stated. In Bolivia, statistics show that eight out of 10 women and girls experience physical violence at least once in their lives, highlighting the urgent need for initiatives like Warmi Power.
Co-founded by Laura Roca and Kimberly Nosa, both taekwondo black belts, in 2015, Warmi Power aims to equip women with the skills and confidence to defend themselves without resorting to violence. Nosa, with 18 years of taekwondo practice, emphasizes that self-defense training can be life-saving and empowering in the face of gender-based violence.
Roca, a trained psychologist, defied societal expectations by embracing taekwondo despite her father’s objections that it was a male-dominated discipline. Together, Roca and Nosa have empowered over 35,000 women across Bolivia through their self-defense training programs.
In El Alto, where the majority of women in the class are Indigenous and engaged in informal trade, the impact of Warmi Power’s training is evident. By harnessing the power of taekwondo, Mayta and her fellow instructors are not only teaching self-defense techniques but also fostering a sense of empowerment and unity among Indigenous women in Bolivia.