Burma Humanitarian Mission partner: Strong GIRLS CLUB
Boxing as a Path to Healing
Strong Girls Club runs free boxing camps for refugee women and domestic violence survivors in communities on the Thai-Myanmar border. Classes are beginner-friendly, women-only and led by a trauma-informed coach who shares the lived experience of being a survivor.
Every session includes technique, partner drills, padwork and fitness conditioning. Throughout each camp, we hold facilitated support group check-ins where students can process, integrate and celebrate their growth together. As most of our students are single mothers, we also provide childcare to enable them to attend.
Why It Matters
Gender-based violence affects women from every culture and background. For refugee women who are also navigating displacement, isolation and limited support systems, it further strips away their sense of safety in their bodies and the world around them. Strong Girls Club creates conditions for survivors to start moving past their trauma and into a more empowered version of themselves.
Sport is the vehicle. Empowerment is the goal.
We use fight sports as a vehicle for deeper transformation. At Strong Girls Club,
Trauma, fear and conditioning teach women to make themselves small, and for many of our students, that smallness has been used as a tool for control in every aspect of their lives. Boxing undoes that. Over time, training helps rewire the brain away from disempowerment and toward confidence. That sense of inner safety profoundly shifts how women move through the world.
The body is key to healing trauma.
A lot of trauma lives in the body. Talk-based approaches can be helpful, but they don't always reach what's stored physically, especially for survivors of sexual or physical abuse. Movement-based practices like boxing help people reconnect with their bodies, supporting nervous system regulation, stress processing and rebuilding a sense of strength and self-trust.
Women become stronger together.
Our students come to their first class carrying uncertainty about what boxing will be like. But while training together, they support each other through challenges and build bonds. Our women-only environment makes that possible: Students with cultural concerns can train comfortably, mothers can bring their kids, and women can connect authentically in ways that deepen the healing process. Many leave with new friends they can call on for support.
Help Women Reclaim Their Strength
Strong Girls Club runs entirely on donated support, which goes directly toward keeping classes free, bringing training to women in shelters and safe houses, and lowering the barriers that stand between survivors in recovery and access to this transformative experience. Women who come to us feeling fearful and shut down leave with greater confidence, a stronger sense of safety, and a network of women they can rely on. Your support makes that possible.
- $25 — a set of gear for one participant
- $50 — one full class session
- $150 — a month of classes for one woman
- $1,800 — a full month-long camp including coaching, equipment, and childcare