Project to empower men improve household income launched

By Patrick Jaramogi

A program geared towards sensitizing men to stop battering their wives and improve household incomes has kicked off in the country.

The program “Men Engage project” launched under the annual campaign against corruption and gender based violence will have men engage in the fight against sexual and gender based violence.

Sylvia Namale the Program officer East African Sub regional Initiative for the Advancement for Women (EASSI) said at least 100 men will be trained on how to “handle women” and boost household income.

A total of 90 men have been selected from two Sub Counties in the districts of Rakai, Kabale and Busia, where reports of gender based violence is high across the country.

The objective of the “Men Engage Project” is to ensure that males participate in the economic empowerment agenda which complements the local Government efforts as emphasized by the District Gender and Development Strategy. The long term objective is to improve the social wellbeing of the women and girls and strengthening their voices for economic self-reliance by addressing sexual violence. The project will be implemented in six of the Sub Counties in Rakai, Kabale and Busia.

“We shall train the men as an effort to engage them in gender equality for poverty reduction in the communities. These will be part of the team that will roll out the program and teach others countrywide,” said Namale.

The project dubbed “men engagement to end sexual and gender based violence” is the first of its kind to be run by Eastern African Sub Regional Support Initiative (EASSI) in conjunction with DWS. It is in line with the global campaign of the 16 days of activism against gender based violence that is marked annually.

EASSI in partnership with Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW) has for the last one year been implementing Women and Girls Empowerment project (WOGE) whose central objective is to contribute to poverty reduction by strengthening women’s and girls’ voices for economic self­-reliance in the Eastern African Region.

According to Eric Tumwesigye, EASSI project officer, the project is intended  to involve men’s participation in empowering women to equally share opportunities, rights and responsibilities for human development .

Tumwesigye said gender based violence has been tacked from several different fronts whereby social, political, cultural and economic aspects will be the focus of point for the 90 men trained from the three districts.

“The project is meant to ensure men’s participation in the economic empowerment agenda in line with strengthening women’s and girl’s voices for economic self-reliance in the eastern region,” he said.

The East African Sub regional Initiative for the Advancement for Women (EASSI) is a sub- regional civil society organization established in 1996. EASSI mission is to facilitate systematic follow up of government implementation of the Beijing Platforms for Action (BPFAs) emanating from the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing china in 1995. It is registered in Uganda and works with partner organizations in Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.

WOGE project is being implemented in Uganda Kenya and Tanzania. In Uganda, WOGE is implemented in Rakai, Busia and kabala districts. As an empowerment project that is building the capacities of women and girls to lead improved and healthy live