Goma Pandey, a 15-year-old peer educator with the Girls’ Empowerment Program who grew up watching sports and was especially enthusiastic about Taekwondo athletes and the sport’s kick-jumps and grappling techniques, won the gold medal in Taekwondo. She first noticed children practicing Taekwondo when she was a young girl. “I wanted to play as early as I saw them because I cannot even begin to describe how good and happy, I felt. At that time, even though I told my mom and dad that I would participate in that taekwondo, they probably shouldn’t have allowed me to play, so I didn’t tell anyone because in our society there is a lack of encouragement that parents actually don’t give their daughters to play sports.
“When I was chosen as a peer educator under the Girls’ Empowerment Programme, which is supported by KANALLAN, I was overjoyed to reap the benefits of all of the opportunities and training provided by GEP. After participating in self-defense training, I requested permission from my parents to participate in Taekwondo, and surprisingly, they couldn’t say no because I had already participated in self-defense training. “I used my monthly GEP incentives because my father’s earnings were grossly inadequate for the house, so I invested the money in taekwondo classes for not myself but also for my sister,” Goma explained.
On August 13, 2022, Bardghat Dhanewa hosted a district level championship. She had the chance to compete and, to her surprise, she won a gold medal that forever changed her life. She says, “I forget about all the pain I felt during the game when the gold medal is around my neck.” When the Nawalpur girl started her journey as a Taekwondo player, she had no idea that one day she would be sporting a gold medal. She now aspires to one day decorate her neck with an Olympic gold medal. “We shouldn’t structure our beliefs on the stereotypes that a largely patriarchal society creates, which leads to the fact that girls shouldn’t play sports,” added Goma.
Together with her peers in the communities and at school, she has been instructing self-defense classes and raising awareness of the value of self-defense and how to develop confidence in oneself to be situationally aware in order to protect girls from harm.
“If we take self-defense classes and master techniques like taekwondo, we girls will be able to walk anywhere without being afraid. Therefore, it would be simpler for us if the government offered such trainings without any fees. At first, it was a lot of fun to watch people practice taekwondo, but now I feel like I have it all when I practice it, said Goma.