Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, Laureen is the co-founder and Managing Director of Bom Combat NPO and has been involved in multiple spheres of the NGO sector in Southern Africa for more than 10 years. After her initial involvement at Mitchell’s Plain Network Opposing Women Abuse, Laureen began her academic career at the University of the Western Cape and graduated with a B.A. in Sports, Recreation and Exercise Science in 2009. In her studies and in her research, Laureen was mainly invested in capacity building and organizational development in the field of sport for development and peace. While completing an additional diploma with The Fundraising Academy in 2014, Laureen worked in different capacities within the NGO sector, predominantly with children and youth in at-risk environments. In this time, Laureen focused her academic and research interest on prevention and intervention programmes for structural inequalities and gender-based violence. In 2015, Laureen furthered her studies and obtained a postgraduate Honours degree in Development Studies from the University of the Western Cape and simultaneously set up a structural peer-education programme as project manager for BOXGIRLS South Africa. While being directly involved with monitoring and evaluation of project effects, peer-educator training and curriculum development for best-practice GBV programmes, Laureen’s research focused on the intervention and prevention effects of peer-education programmes and gender-based violence. Recently, her work focused on developing the impact of Bom Combat NPO in tackling violence and violence-related social problems through sport-based interventions in disadvantaged communities in South Africa.

“Martial Arts is a way of life that is based on the experience of the limits and possibilities of our own body movement. It used to be an exclusive skill that was taught to a selected few individuals and was a sign of social status. We aim to provide an opportunity to learn and practice these skills and teachings to parts of society that often do not have the access to these experiences.”

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As a sport scientist (German Sport University from Cologne, Germany) and psychology graduate (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), Gerry draws from a multitude of professional experience around mental health, social and community development in various clinical, school and community settings  He is a founding member of Bom Combat and has developed a martial arts-based methodology for children, adolescents and young adults, focusing on cognitive-behavioural changes around conduct, aggression and substance abuse problems.

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Combining his expertise of academic research, martial arts practice, coaching and counselling, Gerry is the Research Coordinator and aims to establish an evidence basis for violence prevention and intervention programs by drawing from ancient philosophies and practices of martial arts to build   inclusive and essential respect for one another as an overreaching principle of our modern society.

From the community for the community! All Bom Combat coaches have their roots in the communities we’re serving and most have been participants of our intervention programme and grew to become young community leaders and coaches. Every training session is headed by a qualified and experienced martial arts trainer, who is specifically trained within the Bom Combat curriculum.
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As a part of our “Martial Arts Intervention Theory”, all coaches receive specific training in relevant martial arts skills and philosophical underpinnings of the sport and complete a peer-facilitated initial training period of 6 months within the BomCombat programme. During this time, a coach has to learn and reflect on relevant coaching material for the context of sport and social development, including:

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Community facilitation and group coaching

De-escalation strategies for groups and individuals

Personal development and leadership

Martial arts history and philosophy

Experiential learning techniques

Basic human anatomy in the context of martial arts

Legal child protection training

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Martial arts and combat sports generally offer a unique frame of development by experiencing the individual’s physical and emotional limits and our coaches are trained to provide a safe environment for this growth process to take place and where positive relationships with peers and coaches can be formed. The very nature of martial arts practice includes a student to work through strong emotions evoked in the practice and requires them to learn to control these, which can be ahumbling experience, when guided professionally.
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We regard a basic understanding of self-defense concepts in ultra-violent and possibly life-threatening situations as an important component for one’s own perception of safety and environmental awareness.On top of their experience in coaching in sensitive community contexts, our coaches have therefore received additional training in areas of weapons, safety and tactics and have facilitated workshops and presented at international research conferences, team building events for other non-profit organisations and corporates and provided safety trainings for school educational institutions.
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Of course, our coaches are also kickass martial artists themselves, ranging from talented practitioners to professional world champion.