The House of Hustlers introduced a movement called Tea and Coffee Session with Boys, an initiative targeted at boy children in Mogale City and other surrounding townships. Male children are often neglected, stranded, overlooked with disregarded opinions whereas they need support, parental intervention, nurturing, love, and care as much as the girl child does in communities.
The movement began at Kagiso Extension 12 by Thapelo Phage and Xolani Dladla who saw the need for playing a brotherhood/fatherhood role in male children to foster a safe, free, and non-judgmental space through programmes that help uplift, motivate, skill and instil a positive mindset shift.
Furthermore, they also teach boys to become good and responsible men. As a result, they are currently collecting sanitary pads to donate them to schools in the name of “a boy child cares.” Phage says that boys should know how to take care of girls. “The boy child should know that a girl child is protected and should not be subjected to gender-based violence (GBV). It starts at home when a boy hits his sister and progresses to hitting his girlfriend. We want to teach them to take care of their sisters so that they can take care of any female member in the community.”
The event was mainly based on talks about issues that affect boys negatively and positively. Career guidance, education, sports, crime, and GBV were some of the topics talked about. Xolani Dladla was happy about how the event unfolded, describing it as successful and pleased that the seed was planted. He said, “the message is clear and simple. We just want to target young people at a tender age. It is better to groom and implant good habits while they are still young. We want to bring information to them because we understand that there are other topics that are taboo to talk about within their family setting.”
The team of The House of Hustlers say that this event is just the beginning of many great ones. They are already planning their second one which will be at Braamfischer. Present at the event were stakeholders and community leaders who showed their support and donated goodies to the children. They gave positive talks about personal growth, self-development and how to make their future count through decision making.
Moipone from AfriFame, an organisation focusing on arts & craft, baking workshops, modelling classes among other activities stated that she usually works with girl children but was delighted to be invited at a boy child event. She advised the kids on balancing life saying, “Do not try to be somebody else. Invest on your skills and talent. Volunteer and acquire skills. Stay away from crime. Find something that will sustain you. Budget.”
Tea and coffee were served as promised and the little ones were happy to be part of the movement.
This Initiative is a great opportunity to interact with the youth and be at their level to understand the hurdles they face ,and the best motivation and inspiration given to them
This is a great Innititive in interacting with young boys in reaching out yo them and motivating them