Social Martial Arts Association (SOMA)

The Social Martial Arts Association (SOMA)

The Social Martial Arts Association (SOMA) is a migrant women-led initiative to use the transformative power of Muay Thai to improve wellbeing and social inclusion. The association was initially formed by three migrant women who, besides their diverse career trajectories in law, psychology, education and academic research, share a passion for Muay Thai both as practitioners and trainers. Erin Stuckenbruck has extensive experience in teaching and pedagogy in different fields and is co-owner of the martial arts gym in Barcelona called Ruckus Athletics. Sevda Tunaboylu has a PhD in Political and Social Sciences and works on asylum and migration policy issues. Verena Walther studied law and has worked with migrants in both capacities of researcher and legal assistance provider, currently studying another degree in psychology.

They started SOMA Association with the goal of bringing the benefits of practising martial arts to improve mental and physical wellbeing, as well as its community-building aspects, with groups at risk of exclusion. Since its foundation in April 2025, they have run 3 separate programs with refugee and migrant women in Barcelona. The programs were made possible by the strong volunteer team, composed of women practising Muay Thai for a long time, who have helped organise and teach the classes, take photos and videos, as well as help with more technical issues. Each program focused on different objectives; while participants from the previous cohort were encouraged to continue, each program also had new students.

Profile of participants:

Across all three editions (Pilot, Fall 2025, and Spring 2026), participants from 25 countries applied: Afghanistan, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Gambia, Guinea, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, Somalia, Spain and Turkey.

Most of our participants were asylum seekers, irregularised migrants or other precarious legal status holders. Their ages ranged from 18 to 50. Each cohort hosted an average of 20 people. Cohorts were a mix of returning and new participants, which allowed previous students to become mentors in the last edition.

Quick Dive into Each Program:

The first (pilot) program ran in summer 2025. The objectives were to reduce stress, improve wellbeing and start building social connections. We created an outreach pathway that included contacting migrant and refugee organisations in Barcelona, neighborhood walks to introduce the program, disseminating flyers, and using our own personal network. We also created a six-week curriculum that combined games and basic-strikes training; each week focused on a targeted theme such as Claiming Your Space, Mind-Body Connection, Building Boundaries, and Finding Confidence. We combined the classes with three social activities to strengthen the emerging social relationships.

The second program ran in autumn 2025. This program focused on career-development aspirations and was partially funded by the Impulsem Fund, jointly managed by the Barcelona City Council and Barcelona Activa. In addition to the Muay Thai training and social events, we added workshops on employability and one-on-one mentoring. The workshops aimed to help participants channel the discipline and confidence they gained through Muay Thai training toward their life goals, reigniting their aspirations and motivations. Personalized mentoring sessions focused on goal-setting and breaking these goals down into manageable steps, while providing a growing space to support each other, so that participants can realize their personal and career goals.

The third program ran in spring 2026. What made this program unique was that it combined a new cohort of students with six returning students who had been with the association for a year and joined the program as mentors to the newcomers, with the goal of building leadership and independence skills. They helped the newcomers and took on different responsibilities in teaching and demonstrating parts of the class. As a whole group, we ran a series of workshops focusing on goal-setting and encouraging participants to keep track of how Muay Thai training has helped them.

Results

For each program, we assessed program’s success through pre- and post-program surveys covering indicators such as wellbeing, stress, self-esteem and social connections, combined with participant feedback and teacher logs. We kept refining the questionnaire to make it as simple and inclusive as possible to accommodate different levels of literacy and language skills. Overall, each program showed improvement in well-being levels (according to the WHO-5 survey), and participants reported a 100% satisfaction rate relative to each program's objectives. The trainers also kept a teacher log each week after class to track students' progress, which showed promising results. For example, trainers in the last cohort noted that participants of the mentorship program evolved from being "insecure" or "timid" in Week 1 to being "consistently leading" by Week 8.

Right now we are looking for funding to be able to run the program in the long term, and bring the program to other martial arts gyms, to reach more people who could benefit from martial arts training. If you would like to sponsor one of our programs, or donate to our cause please get in touch on: info@soma-association.org

We are also open to collabroate with other gyms and NGOs worldwide to put our resources together to continue our volunteer work!

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