The Pinte Under the name Nimema – not with me – started Andries Deschans and Am Roers at the beginning of this year with a course in self-defense, especially for women. A portion of proceeds of the first series of lessons will go to the Fund Aurore Ruyffelaere, as a symbolic tribute to the young woman from Nazareth in 2013, was the victim of a roofmoord. “Afraid I’m not, but I like to be a little bit prepared, just in case,” says contestant Séverine.
No men allowed, except gevechtsportleraar Andries Deschans from De Pinte and police officer Ben Roers from Olsene, founders of the self-defense class for women Nimema. Exceptionally, we were still during one of the lessons to see what is there every Saturday afternoon playing in the gym of Erasmus De Pinte.
“Why should I participate? To myself to be able to defend, of course. Yes, even at my age I sometimes feel unsafe.” The word is Huguette Waeri (great-granddaughter of the famous Ghent singer Karel Waeri), one of the older contestants, but certainly not the least bright. “It is an intense workout, where we all in the struggle learn how to cast to defend ourselves: knees, elbows, and fists. On the basis of useful tips we learn how in real-life situations should behave. They ask money? Give it. You can detach from a handle, then walk away. I am already attacked. So I was by a man along the rear attacked at the station in Brussels-South. There was lot of people watching, but no one did and that man with my trunk.”
“I like to be prepared”
Séverine is a young mom of three children and she also wrote for the Nimema course. “I was looking for a sport where I could let off some steam after a busy work week and that also may come in handy in a life threatening situation. I’m not afraid when I’m alone on the street loop, but you read often stories about women who are attacked, so I like to be prepared. If there is ever something to occur, then there will be still affected, but after the shockeffect, we now know at least what we can do to be a stalker to fend off. That the course is only for women, I’m good. The threshold to be in writing was for me, personally, is much lower. We train here with two women.”
