Men countrywide have been challenged to shed the negative tag which associates them with beasts because of their brutality towards women.
Instead of respecting, honouring, protecting, loving and regarding women as partners and equals it’s now almost a culture for some men to abuse them and be incarcerated by the courts for femicide and needless violence including on their loved ones. Partners who could have borne them children, mothers who bore them and grannies who made it possible for them to exist, lead traumatic lives daily at the hands of such men.
Non-profit organisation Man and Boy Foundation (MBF) is challenging men to do just that by protecting particularly grandmothers. In a statement, the organisation said, “We are challenging men to take a stand against these barbaric acts while showing practical acts of love.” This was said when the organisation donated a new house recently to 78-year-old poverty-stricken Mrs Jicwa of Zalu Village, Palmerton, Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape Province.
The organisation first came across Jicwa at her dilapidated corrugated iron zinc structure that could have fallen down anytime in 2014, when conducting rescue missions for illegal traditional initiates. The structure had open spaces allowing anyone to see through it from the outside.
Organisation director Nkululeko Nxesi said, “We always saw her walking or sitting in front of this inhabitable structure. We saw on her face and felt her misery and asked ourselves how an elderly human being could stay in such a horrible situation.”
Nxesi said they informed the government and other relevant authorities about her plight. “When promises made to help didn’t materialise by 2016 we raised funds and built a new four-bedroomed house for her.” The home was handed to her on 18 December, her birthday, and also as a Christmas present.
Nxesi said they saw it appropriate to mobilise men to help a needy woman and a grandmother. “It’s important and significant for men to do, to atone for the current bad and negative news about them. We know that some of us are perpetrators of gender-based violence and other social ills.”
Nxesi said women and children were abused, raped and killed every day.
“Like other old women in rural areas who are accused of witchcraft and killed, she survived a similar fate.”
The initiative was also the organisation’s contribution to the 16 Days of Activism Campaign Against Violence on Women and Children which they hope can be embraced as #365 days of activism campaign.
It was officially handed to her in the presence of government, business, community and traditional leaders.
