By Tatenda Zvingwaru
Womandla Foundation yesterday held an inception meeting to introduce its new program “Men for Women” aimed at promoting gender equality and empowering women.
The programme seeks to engage men in the fight against gender-based violence and promote male advocacy for women’s rights.
Men have a critical role to play in ending gender-based violence and promoting women’s empowerment. Womandla Foundation Programs Director Molleen Manhede, outlined the programme’s objectives.
“The inspiration behind the project Men for Women is, we noticed that in our programming we have capacitated women on various issues and we have trained women on various issues,” said Manhede.
“There is need for us to capacitate men so that they understand the implications of gender -based violence. We know that sometimes men are also being abused in their homes, so if they have the understanding that they are being abused, if they have the capacity to understand what GBV is, they can also report issues to do with gender -based violence.”
The organization has partnered with various civil society organizations and government ministries. The programme is funded by the Women Collation of Zimbabwe.
Manhede also emphasised that, “Our expectation from this meeting is that the society accept our project as well as collaborate and meaningfully engage in this project.”