Big Meet and Greet: The collective of changemakers

Through the Action for Equality programme, we aim  to raise Gender Equitable Boys who actively make efforts to stand up against gender-based violence. We understand that it is a gradual process and not an overnight transformation and it needs a lot of motivation. But where else to find more motivation than a hall full of young change makers? We have completed another programme cycle of our Action for Equality programme earlier this month. A total of 243 boys graduated AfEthe Action and Leadership programme in this cycle. On December 17, 206 participants from the recent completed cycle came together to mark their graduation at the Big-Meet-and-Greet event. These events are organised three times a year as a celebration of the graduation, and also to collectively debate and understand different aspects of what being gender equitable means; BMG also is a platform for our participants from different communities to come together under one roof, learn from each other’s experiences and inspire one another.

The participants were actively engaged in critically understanding ‘masculinity’ through debates, presentations, and scenario-based group discussions.

The activities at the event are planned to facilitate team-building and peer-learning from each other, and our boys were actively involved and engaged throughout the event. “BMG is a celebration of the participants’ journey, and at the same time it is much more than that. It is to show them that they’re not alone; it’s not any single community that we see at BMG; rather it’s a collective community of changemakers” says Pravin Katke, Programme Coordinator for the Action for Equality programme in Pune.

Hours of debates, agreements and disagreements, scenario-based discussion and reflections came to a conclusion by noon when the graduates collected their certificates of progress and posed happily for the group photo.