{"id":6274,"date":"2019-04-22T16:01:42","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T16:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gophilanthropic.org\/?p=6274"},"modified":"2019-06-26T22:49:43","modified_gmt":"2019-06-26T22:49:43","slug":"equal-community-foundation-project-raise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gophilanthropic.org\/equal-community-foundation-project-raise\/","title":{"rendered":"Equal Community Foundation: Project Raise"},"content":{"rendered":"
Equal Community Foundation<\/a><\/strong> (ECF), a GoPhilanthropic partner program, was established with a mission to address this epidemic and raise every boy in India to be gender equitable. They believe that boys and men can be powerful allies in the fight for gender equality, if they are given the opportunity, tools, knowledge and space to learn and practice positive behaviors. Therefore, ECF enthusiastically includes boys and men as part of the solution to this national issue. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA lot of work is happening across India and the world that is based on supporting women and fighting discrimination against them. That work is absolutely important. But what is happening is that we are not investing in the root cause behind this discrimination. And one of the root causes is the attitude of many men and boys towards women. This is the gap that we are trying to fill,\u201d <\/span><\/i>explains ECF Co-Founder Rujuta Teredesai.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ECF as one single organization knew that they could not fill this gap working in isolation, so they set out to scale up their model and mobilize a coordinated, national response. In talking to other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), ECF learned that there were several barriers preventing others from adopting an approach that included boys and men, including: limited technical knowledge about the approach of engaging boys; a lack of common measurement indicators and tools; a lack of access to large-scale evidence; and lack of funding. ECF established \u201cProject Raise\u201d to build the capacity of CSOs to collectively tackle these barriers and generate far-reaching change. This project embodies GoPhil\u2019s philosophy of learning, sharing, networking and mentoring, and we are so proud to be supporting ECF in this effort. <\/span><\/p>\n So far, Project Raise has accomplished the following major strides:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Additionally, hearing the individual case studies from the partner programs proves that boys and men are already becoming strong advocates for gender equality in their own families and communities.<\/strong><\/p>\n Shivraj, age 21, (pictured) participated in the ECF Project Raise program and later went on to become an Equality Leader in his community. He shares how the program personally impacted him: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I teased women, I didn\u2019t realise it was sexual harassment. For us, it was simply \u2018fun\u2019. When my mentor, Ramesh sir, told us how it affects women, I started regretting my behaviour. When I teased girls, they would complain to their parents and instead of scolding us, their parents discontinued their education and made them sit at home.<\/strong> While I went to school and college, girls my age were denied their right to education. I felt horrible that they had to leave school because of us sexually harassing them…<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n What really brought me to my senses was when Ramesh sir asked what I would do if someone teased my sister. Immediately, I answered, \u2018I\u2019ll take some boys along and beat up that boy.\u2019 That would mean: when I teased a girl, her brother would be right to hit me. Ramesh sir asked, \u2018Is this cycle of violence okay with you?\u2019 To me, it wasn\u2019t. That is when I decided to change my behaviour.<\/strong>\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n
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