‘Boxing got me out of gangs... it gave me discipline and a way of channelling my aggression’

‘Jab don’t stab’ is the motto of a club that gives troubled young Londoners new focus. It is among 68 charities receiving grants from the Dispossessed Fund and Sport Relief. One of its members, 18-year-old Uzma, tells Matt Watts how it helped transform her life
Sparring partners: Uzma Rafique in the ring with coach Marnie Swindells and Orlagh Berry
Nigel Howard
Matt Watts8 August 2016

At the age of 17, Uzma Rafique was already known to drug dealers and gang members in her south London neighbourhood. Her natural aggression, which led her to start confrontations in the school playground, had brought her to the attention of low-level gangsters in Lewisham and Peckham and they sometimes asked her to accompany them to verbally threaten people who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay.

Uzma’s mother, a well-respected local businesswoman, warned her she could end up in prison and begged her to turn her life around. Things were spiralling out of control until six months ago, when Uzma joined the Double Jab boxing club in New Cross.

Suddenly, she was able to channel her aggression through sport. Like hundreds of young people who have been through its doors since it opened in 2012, Uzma has benefited from the mentoring given by the club, which has the slogan “jab don’t stab”.

Now 18, she will begin a business, marketing and accounting degree at South Bank University in September, and hopes to start fighting as an amateur boxer.

Double jab ABC

Grant: £16,684

What they do: Set up in 2012 by Patrick Harris, a boxing coach living in Deptford in response to a local rise in anti-social behaviour and knife crime, they offer at-risk young people structured amateur boxing training as well as associated life skills – such as discipline, team work, concentration and responsibility. 

Where: Lewisham

How grant will be used: To expand a “wellness for women” boxing and fitness project for 120 from Deptford and New Cross.

Scores more women will now benefit from the club’s female-only classes after it secured a £16,684 grant from the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund. The money will be used to expand their “wellness for women” boxing and fitness programme for 120.

It is one of 68 grants amounting to £1 million announced today by the Dispossessed Fund in partnership with Comic Relief, and brings the total given out by the fund to £11.3 million since its launch in 2010.

Uzma said: “I was quite close to joining a gang but I thought my family wouldn’t really be pleased. The fighting and aggressiveness was what attracted me. They asked me to do little things, like ask people who they needed to pay money back. It was quite foolish. I did it for five or six months. I threatened about seven people. I tried to conceal my emotions ... it actually made me quite frightened.”

Turned around: Uzma Rafique 
Nigel Howard

She added: “The club really gave me focus when I needed it and boxing gave me discipline and a way of channelling my aggression out.

“It was a short time that I was in trouble but it was there when I needed it, and I’m so pleased the club is going to expand so it can help more people. This area really needs that support.”

Double Jab ABC was set up by Patrick Harris, 52, a professional boxing coach living in Deptford who wanted to do something to stop the increase in anti-social behaviour, gun and knife crime among young people in the area.

Working with his son Michael, 28, he aims to give young people a positive alternative to trouble on the streets, helping them develop life skills, good behaviour and discipline through boxing. Now the club offers a range of programmes such as ex-offenders’ boxing, crime prevention work and an employment programme which has already seen 15 young people, including former offenders, find jobs with bookmaker William Hill.

In the ring: Polly Ilieva, who has learned  self-defence skills 
Nigel Howard

Its work has been supported by former world heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and David Haye, who have visited the gym to speak to at-risk members. Prince Harry visited in June as part of his support for sport as a platform for education, training, employment and personal development.

Mr Harris said: “I set up the club as I wanted to attack the gang culture that has been formulating in the past 20 years around the area. I had seen the benefit boxing had bringing up Michael.

“I know a lot of people from the area whose kids have gone the wrong way and ended up in prison and on the wrong side of life selling drugs and just wanted to make a difference and make a change and get people out of the rut they were getting into.” Michael said: “A lot of kids round here are vulnerable and have been struggling to find positive role models and they are scooped up by the gangs who they think are their family and that’s the way out.

“But it’s not. We can be their family and help them. It is hard for young people round here — we have had young people run through our doors for sanctuary because someone was chasing them, wanting to beat them up or stab them.”

The club has seen the devastation of knife crime up close. Musician Myron Isaac-Yarde, 17, who used its gym, was stabbed to death in a back street about 300 yards away in April.

Grants for other projects

DOORSTEP HOMELESS FAMILIES PROJECT

Grant: £17,583

What they do: This charity, founded in 1990 and situated in a homeless hostel, helps 195 homeless families. They offer drop-in play sessions, a crèche, free laundry services, a weekly bazaar with free clothes and equipment, ESOL classes and creative workshops. 

Where: Camden

How grant will be used: To fund the salary of a part-time children’s worker who will support a range of services used by 140 homeless children annually. 

CARERS4CARERS

Grant: £9,508 

What they do: Established in 2014 by Paula Bryan, a carer for her mother who had mental health issues, they offer a Brixton-based peer support network for carers. 

Where: Lambeth

How grant will be used: To run a peer support programme and a series of social activities for carers and their families in order to reduce social isolation, build networks and promote their confidence and self-esteem.

GHOST ACADEMY

Grant: £19,754 

What they do: Set up in 2014 by Sam Purnell who owns Ghost Hairdressing, she set up a community interest company and uses her salon three days a week to train women with troubled lives, including ex-offenders, domestic abuse victims and those suffering from mental health problems.

Where: Barking and Dagenham

How grant will be used: To provide 20 of the women on her waiting list with a 12-week course that includes workshops on sexual health, self-esteem, maths, English, ICT and hairdressing leading to an NVQ Level-1 certificate.

But there have also been amazing success stories. Myron’s “godbrother”, Courtney Bennett, 20, fought his way from an uncompromising background to become a champion boxer. Afghan refugee Jawad Rangbar, who fled the war-torn country after his parents were killed, was supported by the club in his teens and now boxes for them as a promising amateur.

The support the club gives the local area is not limited to helping those most at risk. It provides a unique place for people across the community to mix. Barristers and bankers train with those from some of the most deprived backgrounds in the country. The club knows the growing interest in its female-only classes, which has swelled its female membership to among the highest in similar London organisations, will be another exciting chapter.

The funding from the Dispossessed Fund will help buy equipment, expand the number of classes and train some of the women at the club to become coaches.

It will give it arguably one of the best female coaching set-ups in the capital, and it is hoped it could unearth an Olympic boxing champion to rival Nicola Adams.

Women’s coach Marnie Swindells, 22, who has competed in national championships and is training to become a barrister, said: “It’s an amazing resource for women in the area. For those who are most vulnerable, it’s a safe haven where they can build their confidence, and it can be really life changing. No one judges you.”

The Wellness for Women boxing and fitness programme also appeals to young women who have suffered violence or feel unsafe in the local area.

Polly Ilieva, 25, from Deptford, joined the programme to learn self-defence skills after she was attacked by a stranger in Greenwich last September.

The childcare nurse said being helped at the club had boosted her confidence to go out at night on her own. “It was a terrible experience,” she said. “I had spent months looking over my shoulder. I wanted to be able to defend myself and now feel empowered to stand up to an attacker.”

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