Cape Town - During 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, Philisa Abafazi Bethu Family Centre and InsideOut NPO recognised that work in combating the scourge of violence perpetrated against women and children starts with men, and with that in mind they launched their 2023 men’s programme over the weekend.
The launch took place at the centre on Saturday, with the men who had taken part in the camp and six-week pilot programme in October sharing how the programme had impacted them and they encouraged others to take part in next year’s official “Men in Conversation” programme.
InsideOut NPO director Judith Kennedy said: “We looked at what are the kinds of challenges that men face, obviously based on their own experiences, and we looked at why it is that men are silent.
“We looked at intergenerational trauma and how it impacts our society today, how it impacts them as men, and how their behaviour and actions then impact families. We had the six weeks of support afterwards.
“The six weeks were determined by the conversations that the men had at the camp. They also had to have goals and goals for their families. Part of the six weeks was then to get the families into the programme.”
InsideOut also runs a monthly Men’s Café working with men around the topic of masculinity, providing a free space for men and women to delve into this.
Around 11 men had taken part in the pilot programme.
“If we want to impact on the gender-based violence numbers and on behaviour and changing our societies, we have to work with men, so that is our approach to gender-based violence.
“So the objectives are for men to kind of step into their role, to be the fathers that they’re supposed to be, to be the partners that they’re supposed to be, to be able to be true to themselves and be able to talk about the stuff that’s bothering them in a space that is not judgemental.
“But the objectives of the programme are to get men to become more conscious of themselves, conscious of their surroundings, and interrogate things like what does it mean to be a father, what does it mean to be a man, and what does it mean to be a man in a violent society that we live in and how do we start changing those things.”
The 10-month curriculum-based programme will be held at the centre, located in Steenberg. The target group for the programme are men in communities in which the organisations predominantly work in, the Cape Flats.
Kennedy said they are also in the process of raising funds to further enhance the programme. It is further supported by Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages and the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project.
More information regarding the programme and how to apply will be announced in the new year, Kennedy said.
For more information, contact the centre on 021 565 0668 or Kennedy on 079 493 1233.