SOMA Fall Program 2025
Building Strength, Confidence, and Community Through Muay Thai
From September to December 2025, SOMA brought together 20 migrant women from Afghanistan, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Gambia, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Peru and Somalia in Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, for a transformative 3-month journey combining Muay Thai training, skills development, and community building. Through structured martial arts practice, individualised mentoring, and a supportive network, participants discovered new strengths, built lasting connections, and took meaningful steps toward their personal and professional goals.
The barriers: Participants navigated irregular administrative status, asylum seeking processes, and international protection needs, as well as complex living arrangements, care taking responsibilities, language courses, studies and/or side jobs.
The stakes: Addressing multifaceted barriers: social and physical isolation, limited networks, digital divides, and linguistic obstacles.
The SOMA Fall 2025 Program provided comprehensive support through three interconnected components:
01 Physical Training
02 Skills & Employability
03 Mentoring & Support
Physical Training & Values Development
Eight weekly Muay Thai sessions (2 hours each) led by professional coach Erin Stuckenbruck. Beyond physical techniques, classes fostered values including gender equality, inclusion, non-discrimination, teamwork, and resilience. Through immersive language practice, collaborative exercises, and shared responsibilities, participants developed communication skills, independence, and leadership capabilities.
Skills & Employability Workshops
Specialised training sessions focused on practical employment skills:
• CV development and active job search strategies (2 hours)
Individual Mentoring & Community Support
Personalised one-on-one mentoring sessions to establish and work toward individual goals related to employment and job searching.. Bi-monthly social gatherings and a dedicated WhatsApp group created a safe space for mutual support, connection, and collective care.
Measurable Impact
The Fall 2025 program achieved significant, measurable improvements in participant wellbeing:
Overall Wellbeing Transformation
Using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index, participants showed remarkable progress. Average wellbeing scores increased from 61% to 76%—a 15-percentage-point improvement that exceeded our 10-point target. Even more striking, the proportion of participants experiencing poor wellbeing dropped dramatically from 38% to just 10%.
Specific Wellbeing Outcomes
Participants rated the program's impact on key areas:
• Stress reduction: 92%
• Self-confidence: 90%
• Social connections: 92%
• Overall satisfaction: 98%
Community Endorsement
100% of participants would recommend the program to other women.
Funding & Partnership
The SOMA Fall 2025 Program was made possible through the generous support of the Impulsem Fund from the Barcelona City Council.
This funding enabled us to provide completely free access to all participants, removing financial barriers and ensuring that no woman was turned away due to inability to pay. All equipment, training, workshops, and mentoring were provided at zero cost to participants.
We are also grateful to our project partner, Ruckus Athletics for providing their studio space and equipment with us for our Pilot and Fall Programs.