'A young boy matters too!' campaign helps give boys a brighter future
Klaas Gininda, the founder of ‘A boy child matters too!’, chats to us about the importance of grooming young boys to be better men of tomorrow.
The recent brutal killings against women and children by men are one of the reasons Klaas believes men need to be groomed from a young age.
Klaas, who is from Pretoria, says: “lack of attention and grooming causes problems’. This is why he started his initiative ‘A boy child matters too!’ where he grooms teenage boys.
"Boys aged from 12-18 need to be groomed. Most of the time we neglect and focus on the girl child,” says Klaas. “ There are initiatives such as ‘take a girl child to work’, but nothing about the boy child,’ he adds.
He says boy children mostly get attention when they start misbehaving.
“We wait for the young boys to get into trouble before we give them attention,” he says.
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“ Apart from lack of attention, the problem is boys are curious about anything. They want to try by doing things. They need to be shown the dangers at an early age of doing certain things. They are quick to mix up with the wrong company because there is no one who is guiding them,” says Klaas, who is also a motivational speaker.
“We need to show them they are special. Boys aren’t like girls. You must find a better way to help them to open up,” he says.
Klaas says in his 20 years of experience of helping young boys he has seen that what matters the most to young men is giving them attention, encouraging them to open up about their struggles and paying attention to their feelings.
He has devoted his life to helping troubled teenagers and has been seeing a tremendous change in the lives of the many young men he has helped.
He says one the particular story that touched his heart is of a young man who was robbing people and doing drugs in Soshanguve but is now clean and doing well.
“Transformation is a choice. If you want to change, if you are willing, you will change,” this is what Klaas says he tells all the people he helps.
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He, however, adds that change takes time and doesn’t happen overnight.
He says it is also important for the boys to do activities that will help them to not be engaged in the wrong things.
“Do sport, occupy your mind and be with the right company,” he advices.
To get in touch with his initiative, contact Klaas on 071 441 2550.
Image courtesy of iStock/Serghei Turcanu