GJWB Partners: Gloves & Gear designed by us for you.
Coach KJEM - Kristina Ejem
Kristina is the founding partner of GJWB and has had many roles in boxing over the past twenty years; boxer, coach, fighter manager, gym manager, corporate boxing event producer and promoter for the past ten years. Currently Kristina is a Level 2 certified boxing coach and was the chair of the Female Development Committee for Boxing Ontario 2020-2021. Kristina was the female provincial coach traveling to the nationals in 2017-2018 with over 60 boxers and their coaches. That really opened her eyes to lack of women in coaching but it was a bigger opportunity to encourage more to get started. By far her biggest accomplishment was after her first fight in 2007 and subsequent decision to focus on making the sport more accessible, safe and learning everything she could about it. Over the years she developed a five level boxing program for women and girls of all ages, shapes, and sizes - proving that women really do want to box, for fun and for real.
Coach KJEM has been a staple in the Toronto fitness and boxing scene for the past decade after returning from time abroad in Tokyo, knowing that boxing was her heart. Kristina has merged her branding, marketing, sponsorship, events and sales background with her love of boxing and entrepreneurial spirit in all things GJWB. As of 2018 her now business partner Helene Jafine their combined passion for the sport has now brought to the masses a line of women's boxing gear designed by them with female coaches and competitors in mind. The new GJWB 2.0 website will also have resources, education and easy access to our Virtual Boxing Club when you can't make it in person for a class or one of our Girls Just Wanna Spar sessions!
“The greatest fear of all... is the fear of NOT having the opportunity to fail.” Coach KJEM
Coach Helene ‘Hell Raiser’ Jafine
Her name is pronounced Hell-een. Before she partnered up with Kristina and GJWB she was an avid runner and has completed multiple 5km & 10km runs, two half-marathons, and 1 full marathon. Fight, fighter, or boxing were never in her vocabulary until 2012 and now she lives, eats, and breathes all things boxing. Her boxing resume is continuously growing, but she is no stranger to the fitness world. In 2012, she worked at a boxing club in London, England where she moved after graduating from University in Halifax; it was hearing the sound of a (proper) jab landing on a heavy bag that gave her such a rush and confidence and where her boxing journey began. She moved back to Toronto in 2014 after hearing from a friend in the UK about a boxing club called CBA and she dropped in to see what it was all about. She just knew she needed to continue boxing and that is when she met coach Kristina and got involved with the Girls Just Wanna Box program.
“You can't fake hard work!” Coach Helene
Helene is an NCCP Level 2 Coach and has her Level 1 Cut Course. She was the assistant team manager for Boxing Ontario at the 2017 National's tournament in Quebec City and the team manager in Edmonton for 2018. She became an amateur fighter in March 2019; competing in her first bout. She is continuing to level-up as a coach & fighter and using the sport of boxing to help women realize how strong they are both physically and mentally. Helene was also an integral part of the Boxing Ontario Female Development Committee from 2020-2022. When given the opportunity to partner with Kristina in 2018 and co-create GJWB online, boxing gear and a community for women, what could be more exciting!? Absolutely nothing so hands up, protect the pretty, let’s go!
