
What does EmpowerVan do?
We move alongside the European migration routes to teach displaced people identifying as women free empowerment and self-defense classes.
Where are we currently active?
Active Courses
- Weekly courses at Sama Center near Malakasa Camp
- Monthly seminars in Athens
Switzerland & Greece
We teach seminars based on the principles of empowerment and self-defense, where we look at a variety of subjects, ranging from communication methods to coping mechanisms, intuition practices as well as physical self-defense techniques. This course gives the participants an insight on self-defense techniques and allows them to directly transform previous knowledge with learned insights into action.
Check the MAP
Empowerment Self Defense Seminars
Holistic self-defense from body to mind
We teach seminars based on the principles of empowerment and self-defense. There we look at a variety of subjects from ways of speech to coping mechanisms, intuition practices as well as physical self-defense techniques. This course gives the participants an insight on self-defense techniques and allows them to directly transform previous knowledge into action.​
Physical Self-Defense Classes
Practice what we preach
The physical self-defense classes primarily focus on internalizing and improving the learned techniques of defense in order to be able to properly execute them in case of emergency. Here we set a big focus on deescalation as a first resource. We include people from all sport and age backgrounds.
Movement and Sport
Endorphins for positivity and health
A big part of self-defense is self-care, -knowledge and - awareness. Through our fitness, yoga and movement classes, we empower displaced people to take back ownership and give themselves a daily dose of endorphins.
Courses for Humanitarian Aid Workers
Creating Safe Environments
In order to create safe environments not only for those displaced, but for those working in the field, we facilitate courses to humanitarian aid workers from front line workers, care takers to legal advisors and volunteers.

Past Courses
We taught classes and seminars mainly near Athens. Our frequent courses were/are in collaboration with ROSA and Sama Center, where we operate in the nearest camps from Athens.
We travelled to Ioannina, Malakasa, Ritsona, Thiva and Thessaloniki to empower displaced women.
Check out our MAP for the full overview!