Centre for Youth Development and Transformation has expressed its satisfaction with how boys in traditional authority Kapeni in Machinjiri area in Blantyre are integrating matters of women and girls’ rights with positive masculinity.
In an interview, the organisation’s programmes Officer, Charles Nyerere, said they have been engaging the boys so that they should be championing the fight against Gender Based Violence (GBV) in their respective communities.
Nyerere said there have been engagements with boys using gender transformative model which is a tool of enhancing gender equity towards girls.
“There have been joint efforts for both genders in identifying issues that are rocking girls and women and ideally drawing action plans to deal with such using community platforms. This has also acted as a model for intervention to other stakeholders as the inclusion of boys in girls’ programs seems to reduce the gap of meaningful engagement,” he said.
He added that since the start of their project of ENGAGE through sports there have been positives as boys are co-existing with girls and also respecting their rights.
“Boys are leading campaigns in promoting positive masculinity at home, at school and even where they spend rest of their time with friends by demonstrating elements of co-existence and respect of girls and women’s rights,” he added.
Masaka boys’ club leader, Isaac Steven, said through the project they have learnt a lot and as the club they will continue advocating for the rights of girls and women even if it phases out.
“Men need to lead the way of protecting girls and women rights for GBV to end in our communities, And to achieve this there is also a need of both sex to always be included in either’s programs,” he said.
The project which is being implemented with funds from Comic Relief has two models which are looking into boys and girls respectively. The girls’ model is being implemented by Girls Empowerment Network which is also the leading partner.
