Draft Curriculum for Male Motivators in Mangochi, Malawi

The project targets young fathers aged 16-25 who are parenting a child between one and three years old in eight parishes of Atiak sub-County, Amuru District. The initiative involves developing an evidence-based mentoring program for young fathers to build relationship skills and positive parenting practices. The program includes a series of mentor sessions, group discussions, and community poster series that use emotion-based messages to catalyze reflection on inequitable gender norms and domestic violence. The mentoring program is guided by the concept of "positive masculinity," which validates men's caring nature and understanding of how violence is caused by male privilege and powerlessness. The project will test the effectiveness and feasibility of the interventions through a rigorous pre-test/post-test control experimental design. Five hundred young fathers will be randomly assigned to either participate in the full set of activities or to be a control group exposed only to community poster series. All 500 young fathers will be interviewed to learn about their current parenting practices, relationship and communication skills, and attitudes towards domestic violence. The mentoring program will involve 44 trained mentors who will meet with young fathers participating in the project once a month for six months. Mentors will also invite fathers to attend six monthly group discussions with other young fathers and their mentors. The community poster series will be placed in central meeting locations to reinforce themes raised in mentor sessions and spark community dialogue. Early indications of acceptability and change suggest that young fathers are ready to participate in the initiative and are willing to make positive changes in their lives. Pretesting of concepts for the community posters found that young fathers care deeply about their families and want to be the best fathers and husbands they can be. After discussing the proposed mentor sessions and community poster concepts, young fathers reported making a number of changes at home, including becoming more involved in child care, communicating more with their wives, and reducing their alcohol consumption. The REAL Fathers Initiative aims to bring about positive changes in the lives of young fathers and their families. The project's focus on positive masculinity and its emphasis on building relationship skills and positive parenting practices offer a promising approach to reducing intimate partner violence and harsh punishment of children in post-conflict northern Uganda.