The Men Carve founder and president, Zakhe Khuzwayo is a beacon of hope addressing critical issues related to gender and masculinity, reshaping societal norms, and empowering the youth to foster healthy attitudes. Khuzwayo is a student in the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics, Department of Information and Corporate Management, registered for his Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Information Management.
The core objective of the Men Carve is to combat gender-based violence through creative and innovative means. Khuzwayo passionately believes that cultivating healthy attitudes is the key to dismantling the toxic masculinity that perpetuates violence in South African. His commitment to this mission is unwavering, driven by first-hand experiences that have shaped his perspective.
Khuzwayo shared that the plans for this year included wanting to grow the organisation and encouraging more people to be the change they want to see. “We believe once they become aware that change starts with and within them, they can change the world to be better place,” he said.
He also added that the organisation would like to get more sponsors to help with the sustainability of the project. “We want to secure sponsorship as we are using our bursary money to do our programme as we have limited funding from the DUT International Centre of Non-violence ICON through Mr Crispin Hemson. So, we want to get more sponsors and donors for sustainability of our project,” he elaborated.
He is now appealing for assistance from management to provide the organisation with working space, which would enable him to better support DUT student who needs his guidance.
The Men Carve is involved in other programmes that helps people. They are currently in a programme called Food Scheme (Nomfundo Mbatha Campaign), Helping Grade 8 learners to choose their subjects wisely. “This will determine their choices of study and their future jobs; helping Grade 12 learners in forgotten deep rural areas with online CAO and NSFAS applications as they often lack smart phones and data to make online applications; we have members from different communities, universities and TVET colleges, churches, civic organisations that we also collaborate with,” said Khuzwayo
He further mentioned that they are looking for new members to join the organisation. “If someone wants to be part of our organisation we are looking for new members from different places, applications are open and will close at the end of February, 2024. Visit our social media platforms to find more information about our organisation and the application to become one of us,” he said.
Pictured: Men Carve founder and president, Zakhe Khuzwayo.
Patience Makhaye
