Everyone Plays a Role: Empowering Men to Promote Equality
“The program has changed a lot of good things in my home like having dialogues between me and my family members, harmony and prosperity. The thing I am most happy with is to be invited with my wife to mentor families living in domestic violence.”
— Gatete Faustin
Like many males in Rwanda, 46 year old Gatete Faustin, Karubisha’s Village Leader, was brought up to believe women and men have very different gender based roles. Women take care of the house while men work and are in charge of financial decisions.
“I used to be in the kitchen with my mom, sweeping at home but my father was unhappy to find me doing it and I was beaten because of that. He was telling me that I will not be a real man because men are not supposed to cook and clean”
With this strong belief, Faustin, a father of 7, brought up his own children, “I was taking all decisions as the head of family without my wife’s consent, prohibiting my boys from doing some activities at home”.
All of that changed when he was invited to participate in “Positive Masculinity”, a male focused workshop led by Women Space Facilitators from Rwanda Women’s Network.
“The most memorable topic was on Power and Gender Based Violence” Faustin says. It made him realize that by making all the decisions at home, he was financially abusing his wife.
With that insight, change quickly followed, “I changed my mindset and actions at home. My wife started selling goods (like bananas) and using the money however she wanted”. Faustin and his wife now make financial planning together during harvest, they also give their children equal responsibilities and Faustin makes sure to do some of the house work himself.
Championing Women Equality
Because of the positive change he experienced with his family, Faustin is now committed to shifting more mindsets within his community, by empowering other men to attend the ‘Positive Masculinity’ program.
In Rwanda Women’s Network, we strongly believe that men and women working together have the power to prevent Gender Based Violence. That is why we are highly invested in developing male focused educational programs, as well as parenting and couple focused workshops. So far X# men across Rwanda went through these educational programs.
Help us change lives like Faustin’s by extending the reach and frequency of these programs.