Thanks to the mentorship program offered by ESD, I have had the pleasure to have a buddy who can reflect with me on past courses and can give me useful advice in how to move forward in various topics. The mentorship program helped me foster confidence as well as build my skills and knowledge in various areas of self defense. I am extremely grateful to belong to such a lovely and kind community of powerful women who lift each other up and help one another succeed!

In 2020 I participated in a Level 1 training course in El Halev. I am a NVC expert with no martial arts background. I joined my daughter Nina Wennink and together we started Resilience Training Institute.

In the last few years I lived in Moroto, Uganda. Violence against women in Uganda is fierce. I was asked to deliver ESD training, but I felt insecure about teaching the physical techniques. My mentor, Anat, offered a weekly online coaching to strengthen my abilities.

Those online classes helped tremendously. I started to master the techniques, implement them with accuracy and certainty. Esther, a Ugandan women, joined the online training and became my assistant. Impacted herself, she wants to train others.

We trained 6 groups of women so far; girls in an orphanage; residents in safe-houses; secondary school.

Without this online guidance, our transfer of techniques and skills would have been much less. I'm a pretty confident person, but I couldn't have done this without my mentor’s guidance.

Mentoring was an essential part of my ESD journey. I felt supported and also was able to grow. Being the only ESD instructor in the country is not easy and my mentors were always there for me as a source of comfort, strength and inspiration. In the beginning, I was afraid to not be precise enough or not to master the physical techniques. Even now with the highest level of certification, I always reach out for help when it comes to a new target groups (such as people with autism or nurses), asking for the best practices and tips. The collective wisdom of ESD is thus multiplied and shared further.

For me, mentoring is one of the cornerstones of ESD and therefore I have recently became a mentor myself, so I can help others like I was helped.

Over the past couple of years, I've leaned on my mentors for all sorts of advice when it comes to teaching ESD. From refining physical techniques to crafting class content, their guidance has been invaluable. When I had to teach ESD to a group of people with visual, auditory and motor disabilities, one of my mentors gave me detailed instructions on adjusting the workshop to meet their needs. The ESD mentorship program has been a game-changer for me as an instructor. It boosted my confidence and helped me take my teaching skills to the next level. Huge thanks to Nina, Anat, Sheila, and Gentiana!