ACADEMIA FEMENINA DE BOXEO LUNAS (LUNAS Women’s Boxing Academy): Where boxing becomes hope, and silence turns into a voice

By Yessica Ramos / Translated by David Hörhager

In the heart of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, in February 2024, LUNAS was born—a free women’s social boxing academy, open to girls as young as six and to women well into adulthood.

Here, there is no ageism, no discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, disability, or social status. Everyone is welcome.

This space recognizes and celebrates diversity as one of its greatest strengths. Every body, every story, every journey is respected. The academy offers free classes at the Quetzaltenango Sports Complex, in the boxing gym, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m.

It began as a different kind of proposal: a women’s boxing academy with a profoundly social, therapeutic, and transformative vision. Its name is LUNAS, and more than a sports space, it is a trench of resistance, empowerment, and emotional healing for girls, adolescents, and women living in vulnerability.

It was founded by Yessica Miloska Ramos Montenegro, known as the Coach Against Violence and recognized as a Distinguished Guatemalan 2025 in the Social category.

LUNAS is the first and only women’s boxing academy in the country with a social and violence-prevention focus. Since its creation, it has impacted more than 500 women of different ages and backgrounds, becoming a safe space where the body is no longer a battlefield but a territory of freedom and strength.

Inspired by the harrowing testimony of one of her students, a survivor of sexual abuse, Yessica lit the spark that would become the No “Shh” Social Movement – Break the Silence. This initiative was born out of the urgency to end the complicity of silence surrounding violence in its many forms, and out of the need to create safe spaces where pain can be transformed into power.

The movement gave rise to the book No Shh: The Voice that Breaks the Silence, to be published in September 2025. The work highlights the pressing need to listen, to believe, and to act in the face of silenced violence. Beyond testimony, the book becomes a tool for denunciation, education, and prevention.

Sociotherapeutic Boxing (STB)

Currently, the program is in the stage of applied research and validation, but it is expected to become a certified program at both national and international levels. Sociotherapeutic Boxing (STB) is a pilot-phase methodology developed by its founder, integrating physical training with emotional support, collective reflection, symbolic expression, and the building of healthy relationships. It has been designed especially for children, adolescents, women at risk, and communities affected by different forms of violence.

Unlike traditional boxing, STB teaches through the body, promoting respect for personal boundaries, channeling emotions, and strengthening both individual and collective self-esteem. The program has already begun to be implemented in mixed schools as a tool for education and prevention—addressing issues such as teenage pregnancy, forced motherhood, bullying, and other normalized forms of violence—while fostering respectful relationships, body awareness, and a collective approach to care.

Its methodological resources include mixed and collective matches that break gender stereotypes and foster empathy and equity. Other dynamics include Relay Boxing (collective striking), a symbolic form of team combat, and the Shadow Beat, a shadow-boxing performance technique that allows participants to channel emotions and personal narratives through the body in motion. In short, STB is not about competition, but about people – especially women, girls, youth, and communities—capable of transforming violence into awareness, anger into action, and silence into voice.

LUNAS: Sport as a Space for Transformation

A ring just for them: sisterhood in competition.

In September 2025, LUNAS will host the Second Women’s Boxing Cup, the first official competition in Quetzaltenango created exclusively for women. One of its most innovative programs is MENOSpause, designed for women in peri-menopause, menopause, and post-menopause—stages of life that are too often made invisible. At LUNAS, they find a space for self-care, community, shared strength, and emotional well-being.

Under the motto “We fight for a free childhood, not an imposed motherhood,” the Cup joins the national campaign to prevent child and adolescent pregnancy, promoting every girl’s right to live her childhood in freedom—without violence, without forced motherhood.

The academy also leads “Lunas de Esperanza (Moons of Hope)”, the visual outcry of LUNAS. This first exhibition of sports photography against gender violence, presented in different venues, is far more than a photo display: it was a silent outcry, a collective act of denunciation, memory, and power against violence.

Through the lens of visual artist María José Hernández Carranza, the project captured how women’s boxing becomes a symbolic act of rejection against multiple forms of violence. For exhibitions, visits can be arranged and coordinated to learn more about this remarkable initiative.

Leaderships in Transformation

At LUNAS, leadership has no gender—it has purpose. Trainers Kennedy Gómez and Julio Juárez not only share their technical skills, but also their commitment to a different kind of masculinity. They guide with respect, listen without imposing, and teach through empathy. Their presence breaks traditional sports molds and proves that men, too, can be genuine allies in processes of healing, justice, and social transformation.

Currently, LUNAS is working to consolidate itself legally as an NGO under the name MUNDI (Women United, Childhood and Youth, Sport and Inclusion), with the aim of replicating this experience in other parts of the country, building international partnerships, and continuing to innovate in prevention and empowerment methodologies from the Global South.

The idea is to continue implementing the methodology in schools, communities, and institutions—combining sport with emotional education, violence prevention (such as bullying, teenage pregnancy, and sexual abuse), and the construction of support networks.

MUNDI also seeks to build alliances with organizations to strengthen structures, expand volunteering, foster communication, and weave community networks. The vision is to integrate national and international volunteers into community and educational activities, share experiences, testimonies, and methodologies across digital platforms and print media, design collaborative workshops that combine physical, emotional, and community empowerment, and participate in spaces for training, exchange, and networking.

Through LUNAS Academy and the No “Shh” Social Movement, the goal is to find common ground to join forces. These initiatives are pioneers in the western region of the country. Thanks to the dedication and support of altruistic individuals, along with the active participation of all members, there are plans to expand to other departments—ensuring that these voices and activities receive the recognition and visibility they deserve.

Yessica Miloska Ramos Montenegro, Coach Against Violence, director and founder of the LUNAS Women’s Boxing Academy and the No “Shh”-Social Movement – Break the Silence.