Group Education Manual - Peace Corps Wiki

EngenderHealth is an international reproductive health organization based in New York City. Through itsMen As Partners (MAP) Program, it has integrated male involvement approaches and engaged men since1996. Its groundbreaking program works with men to play constructive roles in promoting gender equity andhealth in their families and communities. EngenderHealth works with individuals, communities, health careproviders, and national health systems to enhance men’s awareness and support for their partners’reproductive health choices; increase men’s access to comprehensive reproductive health services; andmobilize men to actively take a stand for gender equity and against gender-based violence. To date,EngenderHealth has developed Men As Partners programs in over 15 countries in Africa, Asia, and LatinAmerica, and in the United States.Promundo is a Brazilian non-governmental organization based in Rio de Janeiro. Since 2000, Promundo hasled a global network of NGO and UN partners in developing, testing, implementing, and evaluating a set ofinterventions to promote gender equality—first focusing on young men (Program H – H for hombres andhomens, the words for men in Spanish and Portuguese) and subsequently, incorporating work with youngwomen (Program M - M for mujeres and mulheres, the words for women in Spanish and Portuguese). TheProgram H initiative, which consists of group educational activities to engage young men and adult men ingender equality, community campaigns, staff training, and an impact evaluation model, is now beingimplemented in more than 20 countries in Latin America, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.Promundo and EngenderHealth’s work with men recognizes that current gender roles often give men theability to influence or determine reproductive health choices made by women. Current gender roles alsocompromise men’s health by encouraging them to equate a range of risky behaviors with being “manly,”while encouraging them to view health-seeking behavior as a sign of weakness.However, we take a positive approach in working with men because we believe that men have a personalinvestment in challenging the current order, and can be allies in the improvement of their own health, and thehealth of the women and children who are so often placed at risk by these gender roles. We recognize thatmen, even those who are sometimes violent or do not show respect toward their partners, have the potentialto be respectful and caring partners, to negotiate in their relationships with dialogue and respect, to shareresponsibilities for reproductive health, HIV prevention and care, and to interact and live in peace andcoexistence instead of with violence.10