The night of Saturday, November 27th, was one primarily catered for the benefit of men, as the Gender Affairs Unit featured fun and health oriented activities in a relaxed, casual atmosphere at the Magic City arcade in The Farrington. This event formed part of Gender Affair’s Unit’s Sixteen Days of Activism, which was launched two evenings prior, on Thursday, November 25th at the Soroptimist Headquarters in the Valley.
Saturday night’s outing, just for men, featured body massages, board games and outdoor arcade games, as well as motivational speeches made by select men to men in an effort to sensitise them to the urgent need of the reduction of domestic violence in Anguillian communities. It has been reported that domestic abuse significantly rose by some 125% during the Covid pandemic lockdown, in March of this year.
According to Mrs. Ronya Foy Connor, Thursday night’s kick-off of the Sixteen Days of Activism observed the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls. She told The Anguillian on Saturday night: “The sixteen days of activities will run until December 10th, Human Rights Day.”
Commenting on the Saturday night’s activities at hand, Mrs. Connor said: “I think tonight is going really well. It is always a challenge to get men together in the same room to talk about important issues, but tonight we have succeeded in doing just that.
Tonight we’ve touched on issues like mental health, self-care, health and wellness for men, mentorship, fatherhood, domestic violence and the overall uniqueness of men. We have also offered free massage tables for self-care — taking care of your body, your physical temple. So it is going very well. In addition, there were messages of domestic violence and how men can step up and make sure that domestic violence comes to an end. I appreciate that, since that is what the sixteen days of activism is all about.”
