Cape Town - A Khayelitsha non-profit organisation hosted a three-day men’s conference leading into Valentine’s Day, realising the fictional February 14 men’s conference which trends on social media at this time of the year.
The organisation fondly known as project Ulovo facilitated informative sessions for men with the objective to redefine and craft proactive men who will become advocates for anti-gender-based violence, community safety and other issues men face.
Uluvo project co-ordinator Eric Kweleta said: “The conference exceeded our expectations. Men from the community showed up for the conversations we were hosting, we ended up taking walk-ins we had not planned for.
“At the moment, women and society see us as monsters based on the acts of men without honour, and our platform throughout this conference was to address that and structure men who are ready to take action against GBV and who will stand up in their communities,” said Kweleta.
The conference organised by Uluvo featured well-known guest speakers, including Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, Aybonga Kekane and social activist Petros Ntshele Majola.
Majola said: “Every year when it comes to this time of the month we hear about imaginary men’s conferences. The energy surrounding these imaginary conferences always made me question whether men in our society took GBV and other issues men face seriously.
“So when I was invited to this conference I was pleasantly surprised. This showed me how ready men are to address the challenges we are facing. Be it femicide, men’s health, fatherhood related challenges and who we want to be as men.”
Majola said although the conference was on a smaller scale than he expected, it spoke to exactly “how we need these types of functions”.
How men needed to be intentional about fixing what is broken, adding that he believed the conference should be made into an annual event to afford men across the country the opportunity to participate and learn how to positively contribute to society.