By Trevor Makonyonga
An organisation for Norton men called Norton Fatherhood Association has gathered to clean up Katanga shopping centre which is the biggest in the town.
The clean-up campaign ran as an answer to the call by President last year to effect clean up activities every first Friday of the month.
Chairman of the Association, Collin Chumba said that the grouping has seen that responsibility of the environment has been neglected by most men.
“Men do not usually come out to support environmental issues hence the need for us to lead in showing that it is equally our responsibility to make our environment clean. We might dress nicely and go to work smelling nice but as long as we live our environments polluted, we are failing. We ought to do something and this is a start of something which we hope men from other towns and cities will adopt this initiative too,” he said.
The chairman also linked the clean-up actitivity to gender-based violence (GBV) which he said needs to be dealt with in the same way they are dealing with dirt.
“You would see that we have been picking up litter and weeding some areas. This is the same approach we take against GBV. The reason we have a howler is to speak against throwing litter on undesignated places and we have been clamouring that there is no root for GBV in the society as is the case with litter on our pathways. As litter affects our environment so does GBV to families. There is no room for it in our lives,” added Chumba.
The organisation, which is an affiliate of Padare/Enkudhleni, has been holding different activities which help equip males with issues such as male health, capacitation and social uplifting programmes.
The Norton Fatherhood Association has been holding the clean-up campaigns since September 2019 and according to their chairman they will continue with this fete this year.
