Empower Her: Self-defence seminar for women and girls comes to Vaudreuil-Dorion Saturday

A self-defence seminar on Saturday is bringing women and girls together to learn practical tools for safety and skills, and build confidence thanks to Heka Innergy and Auto-Défense Krav Maga Vaudreuil – west of Montreal.

“Seven years ago, I was in a hard relationship…One day, everything is fine and then all of a sudden – it’s not,” said Melissa Degongre, the founder of Heka Innergy and host of the second edition of Women’s Self-Defence and Empowerment seminar, Empower Her.

“I ended up in a women’s shelter myself with my two kids. Hardest day of my life.”

And that’s how Krav Maga came into existence.

“Seven years later, I’m standing here trying to share what I’ve learned with everybody else so that they could see themselves – that it doesn’t have to happen,” explained Degongre.

Harry Stergiopoulos, the instructor at Krav Maga Vaudreuil, with whom Melissa has been training for the past seven years, says, “The ultimate goal is to neutralize the attacker by anticipating what they will be doing, and therefore we combine a lot of counterattacks with the defense.”

Adding, “We do get a lot of women that come to us from, unfortunately, they come from IVAC, le programme d’indemnisation des victimes d’actes criminels. And these are women who, unfortunately, have been in situations. Domestic abuse, we know there’s a huge increase in domestic abuse cases here in Quebec.”

The Empower Her Seminar happening on Nov. 29 not only teaches practical tools against violence, but it also sponsors women from local shelters so they can take part safely and anonymously. 

“It’s anonymous. So they come in like everybody else. And there’s no tag on their head basically as they come in,” said Degongre.
Adding, “I know because I’ve seen it done to others. And these are the women that need it the most, like to give that spark back, to give that strength in their eyes and just give them the confidence to say no and to stand up for themselves.”

Stergiopoulos says, “We look at it three weeks, a month, three months down the road, and they’re like warriors. It’s just they come out of a shell. And for me, it’s inspiring. And I see that also with children, because unfortunately, we get a lot of children that come also from IVAC, they’ve been in abusive homes.”

This comes amid the 12 days of action against violence against women, as we lead up to the Dec. 6 anniversary of the 1989 Polytechnique massacre. 

“Krav Maga is not a sport because sports have rules. So Krav Maga is a combat system. It actually means in Hebrew, contact combat,” said Stergiopoulos.

Degongre added, “You don’t have to be a pro. You’re not going to become a ninja, but it will raise your awareness. It will raise your situational awareness.”

Empower Her – second edition – being held Saturday, Nov. 29 at 2:30 p.m. at Centre Sportif de la Cité-des-Jeunes (pavillon E – 400, avenue Saint-Charles; Vaudreuil-Dorion, J7V 6B1). More information can be found online.