Local women are invited to participate in two free self-defence classes offered as part of Council’s International Women’s Day Program.

The program has been developed to promote empowerment, meet other women in the local area and have fun! Open to women over the age of 18 who live in the Camden area, the free classes will be run by The PIT Martial Arts in Smeaton Grange on Friday 12 March at 12.30-1.30pm and 6-7pm.

The PIT Martial Arts manager and head instructor, Ell Gatt, said the classes will focus on giving women the knowledge required to defend themselves in many situations.

“I think it is quite important to make sure women are both aware of their environment and understand what they can do to defend themselves,” Ms Gatt said.

“We will use the standard grabs but quite often women come up with something they have seen happen on the news and we have a general discussion on different scenarios and what we would do.

“You won’t necessarily be attacked in your active wear and it is likely you may be wearing heels or the like so we will work on simple real world scenarios that will help women feel confident in themselves, for example not wearing headphones when walking at night or the like.”

Mayor of Camden, Cr Theresa Fedeli, said the International Women’s Day program was created to both celebrate and help empower local women.

“We have so many fantastic female role models in our community and we want them to be celebrated as much as possible,” Cr Fedeli said.

“At the same time, we would love to empower every woman in the Camden area with the skills to be confident in doing whatever they choose to do in their lives.

“I thank all the organisations that have put their hand up to assist us with the International Women’s Day Program and look forward to hearing about the experiences from our local women.”

For more information and a full International Women’s Day program, go to camden.nsw.gov.au