Dominica joined the rest of the world on Tuesday to celebrate International Men’s Day which, according to President of Caribbean Men Action Network (CARIMAN), Thomas Holmes, is being held under the theme “Keeping Men and Boy’s Safe.”
Holmes pointed out that a series of themes will be looked at this year. These include “keeping men and boys safe by tackling male suicide, keeping them safe so that they can become tomorrow’s role models, keeping them safe so that they can tackle the tolerance of violence against men and boys and also boosting men’s life expectancy by keeping men and boys safe from avoidable illness and death.”
He added that teaching men and boys about being proper fathers is another major focus.
“International Men’s Day came into being to promote positive role models, celebrating men’s positive contributions to society, community, family life marriage, child care and the environment and very often we look at the negative but we also have many young men who are positive and do positive things, we also look at men well being,” Holmes stated further
He said that discrimination against men and encouraging the respect of others rights despite of their life choices, are also being emphasized.
“We are trying to create a safer, better world where people can live free from harm and grow to reach their full potential. We want the boys at school to realize that they have the potential to be well educated to respect others and for others to respect them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Education Officer of the Western District, Magadalene Royer, revealed that plans are being finalized to improve the standards of male students.
“Our males are not achieving as well as our females. So we decided that we want to change that around and be positive… so we are going to look at raising male standards,” she explained.
She added that collaborations will be done with CARIMAN to go out into schools to celebrate boy’s awareness week. Schools across the island will also participate in various activities which will culminate in a symposium next Friday.
“At the end of this symposium we hope to put together a district plan for our boys,” Royer remarked. “In that plan we will be looking at a rationale, the reason why we want to create awareness and also what techniques we can use in the classroom to focus on raising the achievements of our boys.”
A lot of our young men in Dominica in need of guidance. Too much of the burden of raising our boys left to the mother. Fathers need to step up and I’m not talking about just financially. They need to play an active role. Ensure your kids do homework, make sure they eat healthy and exercise, know who their friends are, encourage them to pick up a hobby and advise them on life’s challenges.
I have not heard CARIMAN voice on the three recent brutality to the women in Portsmouth. Did I miss it?
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Since when boys became men?
The Education Officer is Mrs Magaret Jules-Royer
Perhaps teaching your men to respect women would also be a wonderful addition to the message of the day.