In the heart of T&T, a trans­for­ma­tive ini­tia­tive took place that aimed to re­shape the per­spec­tives of young men on do­mes­tic vi­o­lence and mas­culin­i­ty. This ini­tia­tive was spear­head­ed by the Coali­tion Against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence (CADV) in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Mil­i­tary-Led Aca­d­e­m­ic Train­ing (Mi­LAT) Pro­gramme un­der the aus­pices of the Min­istry of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice (MYDNS).

In April 2024, the trainees of In­take 2301 em­barked on a jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery and em­pow­er­ment, which cul­mi­nat­ed in an art ex­hi­bi­tion last Tues­day at the old Teach­ers’ Train­ing Col­lege in Mau­si­ca.

The gen­e­sis of change

The seeds of this ini­tia­tive were sown and co­or­di­nat­ed by Mar­cus Kissoon, who apt­ly en­ti­tled it The Colours of Peace Project: Young Men Con­fronting Gen­der Based Vi­o­lence Art Ex­hi­bi­tion.

His epiphany oc­curred in 2023, af­ter a screen­ing of a poignant short film at NALIS. Kissoon recog­nised the ur­gent need for an in­ter­ven­tion to help young cadets un­pack their in­ner­most feel­ings about do­mes­tic vi­o­lence.

“He en­vi­sioned a pro­gramme that would not on­ly ed­u­cate but al­so em­pow­er these young men to chal­lenge tox­ic mas­culin­i­ty while em­brac­ing more ma­ture and em­pa­thet­ic be­hav­iours.”

Kissoon ap­proached Unit­ed Way T&T, who read­i­ly agreed to fa­cil­i­tate the sem­i­nar.

The ses­sions were de­signed to ex­pose the cadets to var­i­ous as­pects of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, with a par­tic­u­lar fo­cus on the por­tray­al of mas­culin­i­ty in the me­dia. The aim was to equip these young men with the crit­i­cal think­ing skills nec­es­sary to dis­cern and chal­lenge harm­ful stereo­types.

A work­shop of trans­for­ma­tion

The cadets par­tic­i­pat­ed in a se­ries of work­shops that delved deep in­to the roots of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. They ex­plored the cor­re­la­tion be­tween vi­o­lent be­hav­iour and dys­func­tion­al fam­i­ly en­vi­ron­ments, un­der­stand­ing that vi­o­lence of­ten be­gins with­in the home.

The ses­sions em­pha­sised the im­por­tance of fos­ter­ing re­spect­ful mas­culin­i­ty and the role of young men in end­ing gen­der-based vi­o­lence. The cadets were en­cour­aged to re­flect on their own ex­pe­ri­ences and so­ci­etal in­flu­ences. Through open dis­cus­sions, role-play­ing, and in­ter­ac­tive me­dia analy­sis, they be­gan to see the im­pact of their ac­tions and words on those around them. The work­shops al­so high­light­ed the im­por­tance of em­pa­thy, re­spect, and equal­i­ty in build­ing healthy re­la­tion­ships.

Cul­mi­na­tion in cre­ativ­i­ty

The apex of this trans­for­ma­tive jour­ney was an art ex­hi­bi­tion that served as a plat­form for the cadets’ di­verse artis­tic ex­pres­sions in­spired by their ex­pe­ri­ences and in­sights at the work­shops.

Paint­ings, sculp­tures, and mul­ti­me­dia in­stal­la­tions filled the space, each piece telling a unique sto­ry of per­son­al growth and new-found un­der­stand­ing.

Strik­ing pieces were: The Abyss, Fam­i­ly Tree, Build­ing Hands of Heros, Low Jus­tice, Con­sent and Hap­py Fam­i­ly. All of the art­work cap­tured mo­ments of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty yet, they were re­plete with glim­mers of hope with strength to chal­lenge the tra­di­tion­al no­tions of what it means to be a man. The art pieces not on­ly show­cased the cadets’ cre­ativ­i­ty but al­so their com­mit­ment to be­com­ing ad­vo­cates for pos­i­tive change.