'Our aim is to create champions in the ring and champions in life'

Luna signed up for a boxing class with a Fight for Peace coach for one reason: she saw a video of the session on TikTok and thought taking part would be a fun story to tell her friends.“I had no interest in sports and was extremely unfit,” says the 25-year-old. “I could not do a single burpee and running for the bus would leave me breathless. I had no intention of attending more than one session.”But to Luna’s surprise, she went back. “As a Muslim, I liked the fact that the class was for women only, how social it was, and the structure of the sessions appealed to me — so I kept showing up. I had never laced up a glove or picked up a weight before, but I especially fell in love with the fitness classes and the weightlifting.”That TikTok video two years ago would turn out to have a profound effect on Luna’s life. At the time, she was anxious, lacked self-belief, avoided stretch challenges, had few friends and “barely a social life”. But at Fight for Peace, she met people she connected with and began to take risks. She also gained coaching qualifications that would change the direction of her working life.Luna, 25, learned to box at the club and now helps to train othersJohn Nguyen/JNVisuals“The work I was doing made me feel a lot more confident to go into male-dominated spaces and to try new things without worrying about whether I would make a fool of myself,” she says. “I started training with several coaches. One helped me tackle my weaknesses as a boxer, such as my footwork; another saw potential in me beyond what I saw in myself — and it inspired me to go for more in my life.”Fight for Peace is one of five charities we have backed as part of our £500,000 Sporting Chance campaign, which champions sports coaching and mentoring to transform the lives of marginalised young Londoners. Alongside Carney’s Community, Laburnum Boat Club and Bloomsbury Football Foundation, it has received a £62,500 grant from the Standard’s Dispossessed Fund, which is administered by The London Community Foundation. A further £250,000 from the Dispossessed Fund has been pledged to fund school sports programmes in London delivered by our campaign partner, Greenhouse Sports.Fight for Peace by numbers1,300 People supported last year (aged 7 – 25)228 People supported last year on their journey towards employment70% Staff with lived experience or who live locally35% Female participants25% Participants living in North WoolwichFounded in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 and brought to London in 2007, Fight for Peace uses sport as a hook to engage more than 1,300 young people aged 7 to 25 each year. It offers combat sports — including boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA), Muay Thai, and Capoeira — alongside trauma-informed mentoring, employment and education support, and leadership training to help young people achieve their potential.Situated in North Woolwich, one of London’s poorest and most isolated neighbourhoods, and hemmed in by London City Airport, the River Thames and post-war council estates, the charity is one of the few community resources in the area.CEO Lee Hemmings says: “To say the area is under-served is a huge understatement. There is no mainstream school, no supermarket, no post office, only a very limited parade of shops and not a single cashpoint machine. There is a Pupil Referral Unit down the road, but aside from that, every child who lives in the area has to get on a train to go to school.”He adds: “We have an open-door policy and increasing demand for our services. Some people come to us to get fit and compete; others are more interested in youth leadership and employability. We use combat sports to get young people through the door. Once they’re here, we help them realise what they are capable of. Our aim is to create champions in the ring and champions in life.”How your money can help Greenhouse Sports£15 Could enable a young person to access their programme for a week£65 Could provide 4 weeks of sports coaching and mentoring, helping a young person build confidence, resilience and a sense of belonging£165 Could provide coaching and mentoring during school holidays£800 Could provide a full year of coaching and mentoring, ensuring they stay engaged with school and develop the life skills to fulfil their potentialOne of the things Lee is proudest of is that more than a third of participants are female — above average for combat sports. “We have been commissioned by Sport England to look at women’s engagement in male dominated sports because of our success in attracting and retaining women,” he says.Fight for Peace also co-founded the Newham Youth Partnership — a 63-strong consortium of borough-based organisations spanning youth services, mental health provision, education and community development — with the aim of sharing learning and training. It has also trained 450 coaches as mentors, some of whom work for the charity, with many others working across the wider Sport England network.Percy, 25, is a case in point. He arrived in the UK aged 16 as an unaccompanied minor asylum seeker from Angola, knowing nobody and with little English. He was housed in West Sussex, attended an English centre, worked hard, and won a place at Queen Mary University in Mile End, east London, to study biomedical engineering. It was a significant achievement — but it also meant starting again in a new city and having to find a new community. Percy, 25, simply sought boxing classes at the club but found a mentor that helped build his confidence and resilience as well John Nguyen/JNVisualsOne day, while walking through North Woolwich, he spotted a bright blue box-shaped building bearing the words “Fight for Peace Academy”, standing out among the surrounding council estates. “Boxing had been my refuge in West Sussex — the place I felt I could go without people looking at me strangely or having to justify why I was there — so I decided to go in and have a look,” he says. “I couldn’t believe the facilities they offered, and that it was all free.”He adds: “It took me by surprise. I thought I was just going to train, but the coach also started mentoring me. He would check in with me, ask me how I was doing. They ran a weekly session called Man Talk. I started to get closer to the coaches and to make friends and I attended five or six days a week. Boxing became part of my daily routine and how I built my confidence and resilience. The people at Fight for Peace became my family.”Today, Percy is not only a qualified university graduate but also a boxing coach and Level 3 personal trainer, having completed several courses with Fight for Peace.Luna, too, has made huge strides. She used to work in a fast-food outlet, now she is a qualified personal trainer and boxing coach. “At school I was the one who bunked off PE, so becoming a personal trainer isn’t something anyone would have predicted,” she says. “I went from being unable to run for the bus to completing the Hackney Half Marathon.”Encouraged by Fight for Peace, Percy recently applied for government funding to start his own social enterprise, pt² Fitness, which he secured. In addition to coaching at Fight for Peace, he now runs boxing and running sessions for young refugees and migrants at premises in Canary Wharf.“I use my lived experience and sport as a tool to help these young people find a sense of belonging and confidence through the discipline of boxing,” he says. “Fight for Peace gave that to me. Now I give that support back to others.”The Standard has joined forces with Greenhouse Sports to deliver sports coaching and mentoring to young people in secondary schools across some of London’s most deprived boroughs. So far, £500,000 has been raised, with £250,000 going to Greenhouse Sports programmes in London and £250,000 to four other youth charities across the capital, including Fight for Peace. We are calling on corporations, foundations, philanthropists — and our readers — to donate. All funds raised will go to Greenhouse Sports programmes in London. Sporting ChanceThe Standard