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Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Health Reporter
BOYS aged between 12 and 19 years will from next week, access online mentorship programmes to address social ills that have been perpetrated by men in Zimbabwe, especially gender-based violence (GBV).

Over the past few years, empowerment initiatives have been targeted at women and girls, creating social gaps, leaving men and boys with no role models to help them become better individuals.

The online programme designed for Zimbabweans boys, will run for six months and mentors drawn from successful men and gender activists will take them through several topics.

These include emotional intelligence, career guidance, positive masculinity, drug abuse and mental health.
In an interview, Fathers Against Abuse (FAA) founder and director Mr Alois Nyamazana said it was time to address toxic masculinities that have created men and boys who live to abuse women.

“FAA exists to engage men and boys to address the problem of GBV and toxic masculinities. Men are socialised in a manner that instills the values of toxic masculinities that do not allow them to share or express their emotions, it teaches them to be aggressive and violent. We appreciate men as brothers, fathers, and husbands and hence the need to have awareness raising mentoring young boys to become better fathers and foster positive masculinities,” he said.

“We are going to address the issue of drug and substance abuse which we believe is a risk factor in terms of perpetuating social ills like GBV and risky sexual behaviours. We will engage churches so that they become agents of social change as some of these negative norms are perpetuated in the church.”

Drug abuse

He said that given the right mentorship, men could easily turn positive masculinity into tools of power and influence needed to fight GBV and other social ills.

“This platform will also be a safe space for men to come and open up about their experiences as we understand that some are perpetrators while others are victims. One of our philosophies at FAA is to catch them young hence our belief that this programme will yield much-needed results. For years girls have been given instructions, counsel from birth on behaviour, and they eventually become better socially, and emotionally while our boys have struggled without any mentoring.”

He said the programme dubbed Boys to Men will run on Google Meet and participants will be charged US$10.
“We have roped in men who have done so well in their careers, some even are reformed drug users while others are victims of GBV. All these will help our boys become better men so that we secure our future as Zimbabweans. Those interested to join us should contact us at +263784893098 and we will gladly assist those who are interested but cannot raise the monthly subscription fees,” he added.