29 Feb 2016

Men and Boys for Gender Equality in partnership with the International Working Group (IWG) on Women and Sports recently hosted a HeForShe Fun Run for couples.

Speaking at the run,  director for Men and Boys for Gender Equality,  Desmond Lunga said their aim was encourage men to stand in solidarity with women in ending gender based violence and promoting gender equality.

He said by this fun run, they are encouraging couples to have fun, bond, build their communication skills and live a healthy lifestyle and they also want to break the culture of men being shy to come out in public with their partners.

 Lunga noted that they want the HeForShe Fun Run to be an annual event that will be done on February as the month is said to be the month of love.

“We have a problem of men not showing affection to their women, men not being there as fathers to their children and men not showing emotions, which at the end contributes to gender based violence and killings of love partners, so we want to break the circle and address these issues in a friendly manner by this event, couples that have fun together stay together,” he said.

Furthermore, he said it is a concern that some people are still shy to come out in public with their partners, which clearly show they are not in healthy relationships and encouraged couples to know each other and communicate their problems and happiness and most importantly love and respect each other.

The event was fun filled as couples had a chance to interact with other couples, learn and play, complete questions and answers about one another, blind fold games, the five kilometre run and many more.

One of the participants in the fun run,  Kgomotso Kaisara was happy to have attended the event, saying it builds a sense of togetherness and couples could learn a lot from each other.

“It is important to spend time together and bond as couples and this event could help in the way couples communicate, which mostly contributes to violence if not addressed well,” she said. Ends