A treatise of Defence Unlimited's Vision of Education, Empowerment and Engagement

"I started Defence Unlimited in 2008 as a means to not only teach the martial arts and self defence skills, but to also empower the people of South Africa with potential crime-prevention solutions. I have made it my mission to educate and empower people and to unlock their potential by overcoming crime-related fears and frustrations, thereby allowing them to live a happier, fulfilled and engaged life!"

This is the brief biography that I have published on my various social media profiles. In this statement I had tried to put a large emphasis on the "happier, fulfilled and engaged" portion. 

In order to explain this further, I need to refer to "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs", a model proposed by psychologist, Abraham Maslow, in his 1943 paper, "A Theory of Human Motivation", which attempted to explain the needs of people and how those needs would motivate them to take some action in order to obtain them.

To briefly describe this hierarchy, it is a pyramid with the largest, most fundamental levels of physiological needs at the bottom and the need self-actualization at the top (see the diagram below).

At the bottom is the 1^st  physiological need such as the need for air, water, food, sex, clothing and shelter. These are the basic needs that must at the very least be met. If this need becomes too great, there are some individual that may choose to obtain these needs by force, or illegally, thereby making that person a criminals.

The 2^nd need thereafter is one of safety, and includes personal safety, health and well-being. Financial safety is also classified under this need. A large portion of my efforts through Defence Unlimited is focused on addressing these personal safety and well-being needs.

The 3^rd level of human needs is interpersonal and involves feelings of love and belonging. A person who has a need to feel love and be loved, can draw on family and friends to fulfill this need. Then, on a deeper intimate level, the person will normally seek out a mate/partner/spouse to meet this intimate need. This is the normal path for most law-abiding people. However, again like the previous need of physiology, this need may become too much for the person and they resort to using less than legitimate ways in obtaining it. It is a fact that this need can override the fundamental physiology and safety need too. An example of this is in the case of children who will still cling onto abusive parents; or in the case of gang member participating in illegal and dangerous activity just to remain/belong to that peer group.

The 4^th need is that of esteem, and refers to an individuals need to have self-esteem and self-respect. Esteem also refers to the typical human desire to gain recognition and/or be accepted and valued by others, or to have a sense of contribution or value. However, again, like the other previous needs, a lack of this need can lead to an individual to perform criminal acts in obtaining this. Examples of this is rape that is motivated by the offenders need to feel dominant and in control.

The 5^th need is at the apex of the pyramid and is the need for self-actualization. This level of need refers to what a person's full potential is and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be.

As mentioned, previously, my main focus is on addressing these personal safety and well-being needs. However, notice that that this need become under pressure from criminals’ need for all the other needs (barring the self-actualization need) - the physiology, safety, love & belonging and esteem needs. It is my vision to educate people in personal safety, self-defence and personal development. Furthermore, I wish to empower people with realistic personal protection and/or personal development skills. 

Once these fundamental needs are met, we can start striving towards the ultimate need, namely the self-actualization need. My personal opinion is that I could never make a person "self-actualize". It is something that the person will have to do by themselves (hence the "self" in "self-actualization"), however, what I can do is take them to the best level, namely assisting them in addressing the "esteem need". To accomplish this need, I have created a platform in which the person can accomplish this. I do this through getting people to engage in social-uplifting and environmental-awareness activities that actively contribute to building a harmonious global society.

I personally endorse the below initiatives  because they either are very close to my personal values, or are aligned with what I want to accomplish through Defence Unlimited - to educate and empower people to unlock their potential by overcoming crime-related fears and frustrations.

It is these three elements of education, empowerment and engagement that I truly believe will help to unlock a person's potential, allowing him/her to reach that apex of the pyramid!

With that said, the initiatives I endorse and recommend my students and associates to engage in are:

MANDELA DAY - "It is on your hands to create a betterworld for all who live in it." Nelson Mandela, 1983.

SLUTWALK JOHANNESBURG - Help raise awareness around a numberof sexual assault issues such as victim-blaming, corrective rape, genderviolence and questioning the acceptance of a "rape culture".

THE SANWILD RHINO SANCTUARY - "It is God's job to judgerhino poachers, it is our mission to arrange the meeting" - SRS CounterPoaching Units.

ARMING SISTERS DOCUMENTARY FILM - A documentary film following Patty Stonefish's quest to bring empowerment and self-defence training to indigenous women across America.

Please feel free to click on any of these initiatives to see how you can contribute!

Till next time. Get EDUCATED. Feel EMPOWERED. Positively ENGAGE.

Warren Ho

Founder of Defence Unlimited