For­mer na­tion­al box­er Ria Ram­nar­ine has launched the 'Box­ing Be­yond the Ring' pro­gramme geared to­wards teach­ing par­tic­pants about the added ben­e­fits of box­ing–liv­ing a healthy lifestyle, em­pow­er­ment, in­creas­ing self-ef­fi­cien­cy and self-de­fence.

At the launch yes­ter­day at the VIP Room of the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Port-of-Spain, Ram­nar­ine ex­plained the mis­sion of the pro­gramme.

Ram­nar­ine said: "The mis­sion is to en­cour­age fe­male par­tic­i­pa­tion in box­ing through a train­ing pro­gramme which en­ables par­tic­i­pants to un­der­stand that apart from the sport out­comes, the phys­i­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal ben­e­fits of box­ing lead to an in­crease in self-ef­fi­ca­cy, em­pow­er­ment and per­son­al safe­ty."

Ram­nar­ine spoke about the num­ber of women who are vic­tims of sex­u­al of­fence crimes. "Ac­cord­ing to the UN women web­site, sober­ing num­bers show that one in three women have ex­pe­ri­enced phys­i­cal or sex­u­al vi­o­lence, most­ly by an in­ti­mate part­ner." Ram­nar­ine is al­so grate­ful for the as­sis­tance lend­ed by T&T Olympic Com­mit­tee pres­i­dent Bri­an Lewis and his team.

Ram­nar­ine was giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate at the In­ter­na­tion­al Coach­ing En­rich­ment Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Pro­gramme (ICECP) in USA, af­ter be­ing nom­int­ed by Lewis. ICECP helped Ram­nar­ine im­ple­ment 'Box­ing Be­yond the Ring.'

The first pro­gramme be­gins to­mor­row with ori­en­ta­tion and reg­is­tra­tion, fol­lowed by the first train­ing ses­sion on Jan­u­ary 24. The next pro­gramme be­gins in June. For fur­ther in­for­ma­tion call 763-1187 or email ria.ram­nar­ine@hot­mail.com.