By Jacob Scharff,  Staff Writer

A young woman in India was gang raped while on a bus, and she died two weeks later. As a result, martial arts schools around the world are looking to empower women through education.

The program has been dubbed The Damini Project. Damini, meaning “lightning,” was the name given to the young woman after her death.  Indian laws prevent her name from being disclosed unless permission is given, according to the project’s official website.

The project was founded by the Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association and ASSERT Empowerment and Self Defense. The organizations look to not only empower young women all over the world but also to prevent brutal and senseless attacks. They do this by training women to be alert and making sure they have an arsenal of moves under their belt. James Cat Fitzgerald, the co-founder of ASSERT, said the goal is to change the culture of the world as a whole regarding this issue. 

“We are working to change the current climate of violence by addressing the underlying problems that are the hotbed for violent and oppressive behaviors,” said Fitzgerald in a press release. “Our main goal is to engender an understanding of human rights, regardless of gender, nationality, religious belief or sexual orientation.”

The Damini Project is happening all over the world and that includes the United States and Georgia. On March 1 and March 2, the Superior Self-Defense and Salsa-Dance Academy held women-only seminars as part of the program, said the founder of the academy, Sifu Jason Herrera, one of three teachers leading the seminars.

“The Jeet Kune Do Athletic Association uses the same type of training that they bring to individuals such as the FBI, Secret Service, Navy SEALs, and they are very well know for working with a lot of special forces…” he said. “The idea is to take these women, show them how to avoid those situations to begin with and then how to, if they find themselves in these situations, how to defend themselves in the most efficient, straightforward, easiest, most reactive, most utilizing their anatomy properly ways possible.”

Herrera went on to emphasize that straightforward, easy and brutal solutions are taught because they are the most effective. This would include close quarters, hand-to-hand combat and even weapon-based situations.

Although Superior Academy is not the only martial arts school in the area, Herrera said other schools around the area are reluctant to get involved in hosting the seminars because they believe their own style is diminished by the style taught by Herrera

However, Herrera is not alone in his efforts. His school has instructors like Kyle McGahee and Mike Yamarino who assisted during the seminars.

“It’s actually a comfort knowing that our organization wanted to have a seminar series to end rape culture,” McGahee said.

Like McGahee, Yamarino is proud to help not only women but the world as a whole.

“It’s one of the many projects that I’m involved with there that are a great opportunity to turn around and give back and generally just give to the community,” he said. “It’s more than just physical techniques on how to defend yourself it does get a lot more into the mental aspect of changing the environment that’s actually allowing these types of things to go on.”