This is Thembile a father of two boys (Junior and Aza).
“I was very abusive, I would hit women. When one of my boys wouldn’t want to listen I would take off my belt and spank them. Ever since I started attending the sessions at The Parent Centre I’ve changed a lot – the way I think and the way I speak. Now I’m able to think before I act.”
Thembile like many other fathers attended The Parent Centre Fatherhood programme. This six-session course not only explores parenting but focuses on the lived experience of many fathers raised without positive male role models and often raised with violence.
“There’s something that you are given the day you are born – it’s called your mouth. There are people who first use their fists to solve the problem. The Parent Centre has taught me to use my words to fix things”.
Fatherhood training
Whilst women and children bear the brunt of Gender based violence and Intimate Partner Violence many men are victims too. Men parent as they were parented and with the absence of positive male role models and non violent forms of communication men are often poorly equipped and trapped in a double bind of not being able to express their full range of emotions and reliant of the use of corporal punishments and other forms of violence. At The Parent Centre, we help Parents discover a better way to parent and undo the past methods of parenting. For more information contact The Parent Centre.
Check out our Facebook page for the Thembile video produced by UNICEF in collaboration with SAPPIN.
Fatherhood training
