Changing men to be great fathers

This the second of three articles on an innovative training in rural communities in Morobe to change men to cherish their roles in families. The training is spearheaded by church-based institution, Father Heart International.
By WATSON GABANA
AS introduced in the first part of the series last week, Father Heart International has two unique platforms. The first one is the Man Kamap Papa Tru training and mentoring programme.
It is a training and empowerment programme designed for men only. No woman is allowed to attend these sessions. It is all hausman talk.
The training venue and atmosphere is prepared and readied for men to talk openly about issues affecting themselves, including the male and female anatomy and reproductive systems. This prompts further discussions on cultural issues on gender, sex and relations.
Here every man is taken through a holistic, soul-searching and provoking mentoring process. The training begins with being a male – exploring why God made man as Himself and allowed man to identify himself in the Maker.
The Man Kamap Papa Tru training programme has eight modules and we are continuously improving and adding new ideas and information as the Holy Spirit leads us.
The current modules include:
Module 1 – Being a male – why God created you a man? Identity process.
Module 2- The role of men in gender equality – What God want Man to do
Module 3- Men and decision making – Godly decisions for Godly living
Module 4- Men’s health –God’s concern for mankind
Module 5 – Safe motherhood and raising healthy children – God’s call to fathers
Module 6 – Sex, relationships and problem solving – Creative hands of God
Module 7 – Sexually transmitted infections (STI)/HIV/Aids –God’s extravagant love and extension of this love.
Module 8 – Father’s heart and father’s love – through the eyes of God
Each of these modules has several activities where every participant will be engaged and involved in an adult learning pathway.
The five days of training starts with being a male and why men are made different from women by God and His intention for every man, to love, embrace and protect their wives. The training is participatory and involves a lot of group discussions and work.
The training also embraces the spiritual outlook. It encompasses and entails the biblical dimension of the purposes why men were created by God differently. The participants will be guided to discover their purpose in God as man and fathers. Here every man is mentored to see where their wives come from as clearly stated in Genesis 1:27. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them.”
Altogether, Father Heart International had trained 304 fathers and will soon add another 420 to the tally.
We began by training 36 pastors and elders of the Christian Life Churches in June 2017 and then another 135 men from Biyo in Markham district last December. Very recently, we’ve trained 131 men at Wampit village. In July/August this year FHI will run the same training for 420 men of Mare village.
The training programme has one overarching goal and that is to raise awareness and support positive change among men and boys on sexual health, gender equity and related behaviour, using a peer educator model at community level, embracing the father heart and love of God the Creator.
There are five desired outcomes we wish to see implemented in this training programme.
Gender equality. With the increased knowledge men will have greater awareness and understanding on; the inequality of gender roles within society, where traditional attitudes and beliefs come from, how attitudes and beliefs can be changed and mutual respect through sharing gender roles.
Sex, relationships and problem solving. Men will have increased awareness of ways to develop and maintain a healthy relationships, misconceptions about sex and sexual health and ways to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence.
Men’s role in preventing violence. With increased knowledge, men will know how violence affects everybody in the community and how it can be prevented, the role they can play to break the cycle of violence and the importance of consent in sexual relationships.
Planned parenthood. With the increased knowledge, men will know contraceptive types and how they are used, benefits of a small family with children born at least three years apart and the difficulties of a family with many children who are born too closely spaced together and their important role in sharing responsibility for contraception with their wives.
Father’s heart and father’s love through the eyes of God. With the increased knowledge men will know the original intention God has for man, why men were created in the likeness of God, the Father’s extravagant love, father types and God’s special mission to every person born male.
The Man Kamap Papa Tru training programme provokes discussion on substance abuse and its negative effect on men and the society.
In the previous training, men came to appreciate and embrace their wives and children.
At the Biyo training, 37 youths gave up drug cultivation and abuse and surrendered their lives to God for help.
Four people who practiced sorcery for 29 years surrendered all their exhibits at the training and confessed publicly what they’ve done.
They all gave their lives to Jesus Christ and sought redemption and forgiveness. One died three days after that.
All the 135 men surrendered themselves to Jesus and openly confessed to respect and honour their wives and children. There was total transformation in the mind of those who went through this training.
Right after the training, the men came together and did a community mapping to decide what they intended to do to transform their village. Resources were identified and mapped out and families were divided into clans and tribes to begin the next phase. They will be building 135 permanent houses for their families.
In Wampit village, 131 men were divided into their clans. The fathers are now introducing the training idea and concept to other males within their clans. All clans met separately and surrendered their land, resources (timber, sand) and whatever equipment they had – chainsaws, sawmills, etc to the work of community transformation.
For the next six months, all the men will begin to mill timber for the erection of the Father Heart International affiliate office building and five houses for the Lutheran, CLC, SDA, Lutheran Renewal and Revival Centres pastors’ houses which are part of this community.
In the next and final article, we will discuss the Building Homes-Building Families programme and how the clans are being organised for it.

• Watson Gabana is a freelance writer.