Every 19th November is celebrated as International Men’s Day to empahsize the positive value that men bring to the world, societies, and their families and also to raise awareness about well-being of men. The initiative for the International Men’s Day was inaugurated in 1992 on 7 February 1991 by Thomas Oaster and was conceived one year previously on 8 February 1991. The project has been reinitialized in the cities of Trinidad and Tobago in 1999.
The day was inaugurated to celebrate the contributions made by man in their societies, communities, and their families. The month of November is important to the man’s soul because it brings together a variety of important events for men. November is the month that we are concentrating on raising funds for the wellbeing of men. People observe the International Day of Children on November 20th, and then the unique partnership with the men and the children forms a 48-hour celebration.
2022 Theme – “Helping Men and Boys”
This year the International Mens Day 2022 will be celebrated under the theme is “Helping Men and Boys”
Improving gender relations and promoting gender equality, not only for men but also for women, is one of the six pillars of International Men’s Day. The Six Pillars are:
- promote positive male role models,
- To celebrate men’s positive contributions to society,
- To focus on men’s health and wellbeing,
- To highlight discrimination against men,
- To improve gender relations and promote gender equality,
- To create a safer, better world.
A number of countries (e.g., Canada, France, USA, Colombia, Russia, Canada, China) have attempted to establish an IMD in recent decades in the hope that these gestures would inspire others to follow suit and celebrate their own IMD in synchrony with the founders. However, despite the fact that small celebrations of this nature were observed by a few individuals in several countries, they were not widely publicized and thus the initiatives were discontinued.
In the global village, India’s celebration of IMD is by far the largest of any country. Warwick Marsh, the founder of Dads4Kids, was inspired by Uma Challa to bring International Men’s Day to the global stage and unite the disparate men’s movements around the world.
After receiving overwhelming support in the Caribbean, International Men’s Day (IMD) has spread to other countries through persistent networking and invitations sent to individuals in other countries. Observance of the Caribbean initiative is growing rapidly, with celebrations taking place in countries ranging from Singapore to Australia to India to the United Kingdom to the United States to South Africa to Haiti to Jamaica to Ghana to Moldova to Canada.
International Men’s Day encourages men to educate the values, character and responsibilities of being a man to boys in their lives. Mahatma Gandhi said We must become the change we want.” We must only develop a just and healthy society that gives everyone an opportunity of flourishing all, both men and women, lead by example.
