AMVAF is an non-profit association founded in 2016 by Felicia Schumacher, Martial Vout and Edith Vout-Camenzind. Today, our organization is made up of 5 members, Sabine Alberty and Claire-Lise Worreth having joined the association in 2017.
Our objectives are to:
- Combat violence against women and girls in Europe and India by providing courses in instinctive self-defense,
- Build and create solidarity bonds between our continents: making a donation and/or taking a course here, will help an Indian woman over there,
- Raise funds to strengthen women’s autonomy and security in India by training and paying local instructors.
Our actions:
In Switzerland and Europe :
To finance its programs in India, AMVAF offers:
- Self-defense courses for women and girls,
- Courses for companies and associations to teach their female employees or members useful skills,
- The opportunity for everyone to make a donation,
- The possibility for foundations, companies or associations to become AMVAF supporters.
In India:
- AMVAF teams up with two well-established NGO’s (non-governmental organizations), USDF in Mumbai and Agragami in Delhi to intervene in slums, schools and colleges and offer our self-defense workshops,
- AMVAF trains and pays self-defense coaches throughout the year. Currently we employ 9 instructors in Delhi and 6 in Mumbai.
- This compensation enables families of very modest means to survive and/or finance the studies of their children.
Worth knowing:
- Since 2008, Martial Vout has been travelling regularly to India to teach classes and train instructors. To date, he has spent 45 months in Mumbai and Delhi.
- Training classes number between 30 and 60 students. Instructors receive 500 Rupees (+ 200 for travel expenses) per workshop. (500 Rupees is worth about $6.60 – May 2019 exchange rate).
- The 2019 average Indian salary is about $300/mth (https://surejob.in/average-salary-in-india.html).
