KARACHI, June 30: In a patriarchal society like ours, it is being increasingly felt that without the involvement of men as partners, social issues specially pertaining to women, children and other men will continue to remain the same.

This was observed by participants of a workshop on “Men, Caring and Fatherhood: Engaging Men as Partners for Healthier Families,” organised by the Pakistan Association of Voluntary Health and Nutrition Association.

Rehana Rashdi, Director Programmes PAVHNA, said that South Asian countries like India, Nepal, and Bangladesh had already started initiatives to involve men.

These were proving viable and positive results, and a programme shift was obvious, attaining more sustainable results and direct effects on women, girls, boys and other men.

She said that in the past years, civil society in Pakistan had made enormous efforts to deal with the issues of women. However, many a times, feeble efforts were made to involve the major players – men as partners.

The workshop was aimed at achieving increased knowledge about experiences, processes and basic tools for working with men and boys, and engaging men as partners for healthier families in context of caring and fatherhood.—APP