In mid-November, 2013 Direct Action for Women Now (DAWN) Worldwide, a Boston-based charity hosted Will Muir, of Equal Community Foundation (ECF) to speak at MIT on engaging young men to end discrimination and violence toward women.  Will Muir, founded ECF with Rujuta Teredesai, in Pune, India in 2009 in order to ensure every man in India has the opportunity to study and practice gender equitable behavior.

Geeta Aiyer, founder of DAWN, introduced Muir and outlined DAWN’s mission, which includes addressing gender-based violence through work with men and boys.  Will described ECF’s structured stepping stone program and the success ECF has had in working with young men to change their behavior and attitude towards girls and women.  

Mentors deliver interesting programs involving cinema and life skills planning, where boys uncover the pivotal role of women in their aspirations, and are coached in behavioral change that has resulted in more equitable behavior toward women.  The program is delivered to communities of over 40,000 men women and children, and ECF worked directly with over 4,000 men, graduating over 1500 from the program.

Participants were inspired by ECF’s novel approach, and asked about how ECF would reach the 230 million other men under the age of 18 in India.  Muir outlined how ECF partners with women’s organizations and described plans to scale up through capacity building and training of trainers.  There are thousands of community organizations that focus only on women’s empowerment, and demand from these organizations on how to work with men is growing.

The issue of impact was also raised – has ECF been able to measure any change in behavior?  Will described how 60% of women who live with male graduates experience a significant reduction in either violence or discrimination.  

The discussion and interest in supporting positive change was encouraging -- some of the South Asian community had driven almost an hour to take part.  

In January 2014, Geeta Aiyer of DAWN followed up with a visit to an ECF program location in the Khadki area of Pune, India, and had a chance to interact with the boys and volunteers on site.

DAWN plans to continue its work with regards to gender based violence through partner organizations in India.  Five areas of focus drive DAWN's work:  (1) holistic assistance to survivors of gender-based violence, (2) engaging men and boys for prevention, (3) Helplines/Safe cities, (4) Data and Media for awareness (5) Assistance for special victims:  children, acid victims.  For more information about DAWN or its partner organizations, please contact us at geeta@dawnww.org.

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