Nine Fundamentals: A Foolproof GSGC Formula

Nine fundamentals make up the tried-and-true formula that underlies the success of each GSGC-sponsored club. In future, we’ll introduce you to the basic principles of club life, but begin here with Community Buy-in. Our focus on the fundamentals will include stories about Small Groups; Safe Space; Frequent Meetings, Know Your Youth; Programming; Support Academic Achievement; Fun, Creative & Interactive; and Giving Back Culture.

The Challenge

Community buy-in is the most complex, labor-intensive, time-consuming challenge each GSGC-sponsored club faces. Ideally, buy-in means developing a working relationship with all community stakeholders, including elders, parents and guardians, teachers and school administrators, and representatives of both law enforcement and social services organization

Here’s a description of the three-part Community Buy-in process developed over a number of years by Mentors Nyika Muyambo and Prosper Siphambili of Sisonke Trust, GSGC’s first boys club. The goal was the same for all stakeholders: win over each group to Sisonke’s “he for she” approach to gender equity— the support of boys for girl empowerment.

Mentor Nyika with village elder

The Community Elders

Nyika and Prosper began at the top. With a population of just over 3,000, Monde, their village, is one of 10 sub-villages in a district outside Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The traditional leader, a village head, oversees the running of the village. Together, these traditional leaders report to a district chief. The Mentors concluded that the most promising approach to lobbying each leader would be on a person-to-person basis. They arranged a meeting with Monde’s village head at his homestead, where all major village meetings are held. They took along members of Sisonke Boys Club. According to custom, the meeting took place under a large tree, with their host seated on the highest chair, and the Sisonke guests on wooden benches around him.

Nyika led off. “Sir, please speak to us about life in the past. How were boys raised? What were they taught? What was their relationship with women and girls?” The village head replied. “Boys were raised to hunt and herd. They were expected to head their families and assume positions of leadership in the community. Women’s domain was the kitchen; their role was to cook and care for the family.” He continued. “Boys of today are weak. We need to go back in time and raise them to be as strong as the men of old.”

Nyika countered. “But the world has changed drastically. Girls and boys now have equal access to education. Women now advocate for leadership positions and governments support them. Can you really say that the hunter-herder male ideal is relevant today?” The discussion continued, as the two Mentors brought up example after example of how societies in Africa and around the world had changed. Most convincing was the statistical evidence about the impact of education: on early marriage, on a woman’s earnings, and finally, on the extent to which an educated woman invested in her family relative to an educated man. In the end, their village head agreed that the empowerment of girls should be embraced by his entire community.

The Broader Monde Community

After completing their person-to-person meetings with all village elders in their district, the two Mentors organized a forum. It brought the elders together with other community stakeholders, including teachers and school administrators, law enforcement and social services representatives, and parents.

Nyika and Prosper underlined the need to respect the rights of women and girls. They repeated the evidence that this respect would have a lasting, positive impact on each village within the district. All but one of the village elders supported their position. The holdout insisted that a woman’s power cannot surpass that of a man. He posited that women were too weak to lead because they were susceptible to the influence of others and would, as a result, make bad decisions. Those present spoke as one against this man’s beliefs. In the end, the holdout bowed to the majority.

Parents and Guardians: The Kingpin of Community Buy-In GSGC Mentors have always met with the parents of their youth. But before the forum, Nyika and Prosper had not understood just how essential parents and guardians are to community buy-in. Most parents’ traditional beliefs were deeply ingrained, including: boys are more important than girls because girls will just get married; boys will become household heads and therefore need to be better educated than girls.

There would be no overnight solution to this dilemma. The Mentors went back each year to parents, discussing any changes in their sons’ behavior. Slowly, the parents became aware that their male children were taking on roles within the household traditionally reserved for girls. The parents felt this revealed a better balance within the home in terms of sharing responsibilities. They felt that because of mentoring in the Sisonke club, the boys were maturing well.

The images below are from a recent highly successful group meeting with parents of youth in Sisonke clubs for both boys and girls. One by one, parents stood to describe the impact GSGC is having on the lives of their children and, by extension, on the community. They expressed their appreciation for the importance of Sisonke clubs as a center of youth development.

Group meeting with parents of youth in Sisonke clubs for both boys and girls.