CAPE TOWN – As 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children draws to a close, a non-profit organisation (NPO) has opened a community centre for men and boys in an attempt to empower and educate them as it believes this is key to ending the cycle of gender-based violence (GBV).
Father A Nation (FAN) on Wednesday, launched its first #NOEXCUSES community centre in Alexandra, Joburg.
The organisation hopes the centre will be the first of many, providing men and boys with the tools to be better citizens and deal with hardships and rage in a healthy way.
FAN said it calls on society to encourage positive affirmations for the role that men and boys can play in making our society better.
Founder and CEO of FAN, Crag Wilkinson said the support centre in Alexandra will provide much-needed training and support to men in the community, empowering them to become a source of upliftment and protection in their families and communities.
“Bringing back the values of protecting families especially women and children and the value of fatherhood in disadvantaged communities starts with men and boys getting the support they need to be better men.
“It is not enough to simply create awareness and address the issues faced by victims of GBV if the potential perpetrators are not adequately addressed, humanised and involved in the healing process our communities desperately need,” Wilkinson said.
The organisation emphasised the importance of investing time and resources in uplifting boys, men and fathers of society as a key element in healing broken homes and curbing the surge of violence against women and children.
“We are living at a point of crisis where 80% of South African homes have children but no father. We are also seeing the rates of rape and other forms of GBV continue to escalate during the Covid-19 era.
“No man is born an abuser or an absent father. It is a result of years and sometimes generations of neglected trauma, incomplete childhoods and socio-economic ills. These are by no means excuses for the violence we are seeing, but they represent an opportunity to deal with the problem at its root,” Wilkinson said.
FAN believes to reduce GBV we need to first understand why it is happening and then put in place interventions to address the root cause. It wants to change the narrative that GBV campaigning should be aimed primarily at victims.
“On the contrary, by banding together with the men and boys who have the power to break the cycle of violence.
“By giving them support and creating messaging directed at them, the fight against GBV will have more allies and start to see real lasting change.
“By changing the narrative, shifting from a focus on the victim, to a focus on the perpetrator in order to identify why GBV is happening and developing programmes and interventions to prevent it from happening,” Wilkinson said.
The centre will be providing mentors who will provide counselling services, training and mentoring to men and boys.
The aim of the centre is to equip community members with skills, awareness and resources that will allow them to understand their power and role in society and make it work for their self-improvement and the greater good.
Bettabets, a sports betting company donated office furniture of over R100 000 to the #NOEXCUSES centre.
Its head of marketing, Costa Carastavrakis said the company looks at the far reaching impact when it comes to supporting a cause.
Other sponsors who made the centre possible, include Carling Black Label and AB InBev.
robin.francke@inl.co.za
IOL