International Day of the Boy Child is on the 16th of May. It was founded in 2018 by Dr Jerome Teelucksingh, a university lecturer from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It focuses on boys well-being, their need to feel happy, healthy, and valued within family and community.
It is common for countries striving for better gender equity, safety, and equal opportunities for women and girls to overlook the demands and obstacles that today’s boys face. Concerns are growing over the popularity of social media influencers who openly and strongly support toxic masculinity ideologies, which include gender-based violence, among boys in school.
Jaco van Schalkwyk founded The Character Company (TCC), a non-profit organisation in Sandton, working with fatherless boys. According to the company’s website, they aim to mentor young boys to become responsible men. The company wants to change South Africa’s current culture of violence and abuse through an initiative for boys helping them to grow into good men by instilling honourable values.
The organisation is not limited to one place, it runs countrywide.
Jaco told the Good Things Guy online publication that, to celebrate International Boy’s Day he will be joining Nobantu Mqulwana an NPO Bootcamp for a 4-part conversation on the challenges facing South Africa’s fatherless boys. He will share his own story of growing up with an absent father, as well as his vast experience and expertise when it comes to solutions such as the TCC mentorship program.
Jaco further told the publication how important it is for South African men to be good role models to young boys. He said, “Broken masculinity is associated with South Africa’s high rates of gender-based violence, crime, gangsterism, substance abuse and other mental disorders. It helps everyone in society when boys are also happy and healthy, safe and valued within their family and community. We cannot continue to ignore the boy child and then be surprised that he becomes a product of the examples we set in society. If we want our young men to do better, we need to model better.”
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