Advocating for boys’ leadership

Mariselle StofbergThe launch of the Boys Care programme took place at Ella du Plessis High School on Friday.The Ella du Plessis Boys Club introduced a drop box for sanitary pads as part of their project activities. “The girl child loses at least five school days per month due to their menstruation cycle, which short-changes them of education as an equal opportunity with the boy child. The plight of the Namibian girl child, the constitutional right to education and dignity of a daughter in our society, has been responded too,” said Sidney Boois, the chief executive officer of School Of Destiny Associates (SODA). “Kudos to the Boys Club of Ella du Plessis who pioneered as activists for social change by creating a support system around their school community, and a response unit to address oppressive circumstances. “We are hopeful that this social advocacy programme will lead to structural advocacy to result in policy change to advance the education dream of the girl child. Instead, every community is required to build social trust through collaboration, contribution and commitment,” he added. Moses Niikondo, the head boy of the Boys Club at Ella Du Plessis High School, says the club has been active for the past two years.“We are partnering with the BOSS Men and Boys Network as well as SODA Consultancy on character-building interventions. These interventions focus on values such as the importance to enhance interpersonal skills, which enables you to better understand firstly yourself and others. “This helps you to realise that we must co-exist as people in a harmonious way and build our nation together. If I can learn and know about values such as responsibility, then it’s highly likely to have a responsible conduct in society,” Niikondo said.“We are excited today as the Boys Club of Ella Du Plessis to pioneer the first Boys Care programme, which also involves the introduction of a drop box for sanitary pads at our school grounds. We believe that this initiative will create a safe support system for our school community and the dignity of our sisters will be secured in order to achieve their goals,” he said.“I'm inviting other boys’ clubs in Namibia to challenge the negative perceptions and stereotype about menstruation and realise it is okay to support our sisters. We want to thank SODA Consultancy, BOSS RIDES Club and partners, sponsor for infusing our school society with hope,” Niikondo added.“It’s time for possibility thinking, which means we have to move from workshops and talk shows to walk shows. We pledge our support to the boys and encourage the ministry for training of the boys as peer counsellors. We pledge our iChoose values leadership programme as a component within such trainings. Our programme is designed, among other things, to enable participants to identify with 16 values, which includes responsibility and choices, to practise those values and develop those skills, and to evaluate applied knowledge themselves,” Boois concluded.

Advocating for boys’ leadership

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Republikein 2025-05-02

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Advocating for boys’ leadership

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