Who cares about the Boy child?
I have carefully followed events around me for quite some time but one thing bothers me in whatever interventions we make as a country and as a people; the loss of foresight. There seems to be more concentration on uplifting girls and women in total isolation of boys and men! Our country is not a “single sex” country, but rather a “mixed” one. Everybody is focusing on the girl child, claiming that they are the most vulnerable thus the special attention and treatment. There are a number of girl and women interventions by Organizations, individuals, government and some that are borne by legal instruments such as affirmative action for the girl child, 1.5 advance points, free seat in Parliament among other campaigns which have in fact turned out to be reverse discrimination against the boy child. I am aware that there is background to all these interventions but who ever cares about the boy child!
The boy child too needs quality education, reproductive health education and services, economic empowerment, career guidance, education on puberty just as there is a whole concentration on menstrual education, reproductive awareness for the girls among others. The Boy child too is a father of the nation as the girl child is the mother of the nation. The attempt to concentrate on grooming the girl over the boy is in itself entrenching the pathetic socio construct of male dominance-the mere fact that those who choose to concentrate on girl empowerment only always claim that the boy by his nature can find a way out is self-defeating.
I have heard of so many “Ssenga” talks for the girls but I wonder who is talking to our boys and men? Who is the “Kojja?” Who is spending deliberate time to draw out plans, activities, proposals that target bringing the boy child on board? Many are focusing on teenage pregnancies and school dropouts forgetting that it is these same boys and men they neglect that are responsible for these! Similarly, you cannot talk of total elimination of gender-based violence while excluding the men, you need the male champions in all efforts and this has to be deliberate and not ceremonial.
It is self-defeating if one is going to focus on grooming young girls and women for a society whose men are left to the wild! You need interventions that target both gender! We cannot achieve “equality” when we neglect the boys and men because at one point; your so well groomed girls and women will have to marry, interact with the boys and men you have neglected. I hope that someone sees my thesis in good faith because we shall continue singing the same song of girl child empowerment while boys are just waiting and watching from a distance with no direction.
It is important that we do not lose foresight of our society! It is high time we held interventions for the boys and men since for long they have been labeled perpetrators of the girls and women sufferings! Emphasizing girl child over the boy child is useless and fetching water in a basket because there is no such a thing as world of only girls and women but one with both; therefore, all interventions must target both!
By:
Michael Aboneka Jr
The boy child too needs quality education, reproductive health education and services, economic empowerment, career guidance, education on puberty just as there is a whole concentration on menstrual education, reproductive awareness for the girls among others. The Boy child too is a father of the nation as the girl child is the mother of the nation. The attempt to concentrate on grooming the girl over the boy is in itself entrenching the pathetic socio construct of male dominance-the mere fact that those who choose to concentrate on girl empowerment only always claim that the boy by his nature can find a way out is self-defeating.
I have heard of so many “Ssenga” talks for the girls but I wonder who is talking to our boys and men? Who is the “Kojja?” Who is spending deliberate time to draw out plans, activities, proposals that target bringing the boy child on board? Many are focusing on teenage pregnancies and school dropouts forgetting that it is these same boys and men they neglect that are responsible for these! Similarly, you cannot talk of total elimination of gender-based violence while excluding the men, you need the male champions in all efforts and this has to be deliberate and not ceremonial.
It is self-defeating if one is going to focus on grooming young girls and women for a society whose men are left to the wild! You need interventions that target both gender! We cannot achieve “equality” when we neglect the boys and men because at one point; your so well groomed girls and women will have to marry, interact with the boys and men you have neglected. I hope that someone sees my thesis in good faith because we shall continue singing the same song of girl child empowerment while boys are just waiting and watching from a distance with no direction.
It is important that we do not lose foresight of our society! It is high time we held interventions for the boys and men since for long they have been labeled perpetrators of the girls and women sufferings! Emphasizing girl child over the boy child is useless and fetching water in a basket because there is no such a thing as world of only girls and women but one with both; therefore, all interventions must target both!
By:
Michael Aboneka Jr
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