WIN (Women in Network) has come a long way since its conception in 2006, and under one of its four objectives MAV (Men Against Violence) was created in 2009.
With the collaborataion of a founder member JCI Curepipe (Junior Chamber International Curepipe), The Ministry of Gender Equality and the British High Commision, MAV is now in a position to launch a campaign against gender based violence.
Domestic violence, gender based violence, call it what we want, the results are the same, someone, somewhere is being beaten up, and this someone is usually a woman. Just in the time it takes for us to read through this text hundreds of women around the world will be beaten so badly, they will die.
Gender based violence is one of the most deeply entrenched areas of human life and requires changing attitudes and behaviour about gender roles and relationships at all levels. So a strategy on these issues needs multiple inputs. With this in mind, this campaign is being launched to raise awareness in Mauritius on the seriousness of this issue at all levels in our society. In Mauritius, we have a tendency to say that these are women’s issues. MAV contend that this is not true – these are society’s issues and men need to care about gender violence too, because it not only affects their family, their children but our whole nation and the future of our children – the sort of society that they are going to grow up in.
The Champion for this project – Men Against Violence – is Eddy Jolicoeur. MAV was started in December 2009 and has spent a lot of time researching gender based violence. MAV was officially launched on 24 November 2010 in the presence of the Attorney General, Hon Mr Yatin Varma.
- Our first action is a national awareness campaign which will form the background to our training initiative. The national awareness campaign will be designed by one of the leading advertising agencies in Mauritius, Pand P Link, after a tender to 3 agencies. The objective of the campaign is to:
- Raise awareness of Gender Based Violence (GBV) in Mauritius
- Rncourage men to stand up and say no to violence against women
Our campaign will target 11-22 years old boys and young men because this is where we feel we can have most influence and break the cycle of violence. We want to change their attitude towards girls and women.
JCI Curepipe is a founder organisation of Women in Networking (WIN) and is the lead agency with WIN on this project called Men Against Violence (MAV).
