A SISTER project may be coming soon for the Men’s Virtual Hangout, hosted by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, according to Senior Gender Affairs Officer, Diego Alphonso.

During an interview with the Sunday Chronicle, Alphonso highlighted the amount of interest the Men’s Virtual Hangout has garnered on its own. He noted that some women, who were interested in these discussions, would join the Zoom meetings without noticing that the programme was intended for a male audience, and would need to be reminded of the target audience.
It is this occurrence, he said, that inspired the conversation on creating a similar project for women.

“There is ongoing discussion about it. There has been a call for such a programme, so there are discussions in consideration of that,” he stated.
According to Alphonso, the Men’s Virtual Hangout, the brainchild of the Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Dr. Vindhya Persaud, is aimed at creating a safe space for men, as there is usually emphasis placed on support systems for women and children.

“Every year, on November 19, we celebrate International Men’s Day. The last Men’s Day we had, November 19, 2020, we had quite a number of activities for the observance. Coming out of that, from feedback and interaction with men… we decided that men needed a forum, and a safe space where men could express themselves, ask questions, have their questions answered, and so on,” Alphonso explained.

He added that the programme is hoped to act as a guide in creating future projects and policies for the ministry, especially as it pertains to men, their mental health, their sexual health, and other issues addressed within the meetings.

The topics that garnered the most discussion, Alphonso revealed, were “The Man and His Sex Life”, “Why Do Men Cheat?”, and “The Man and His Money Management”, among others.
While the ministry does keep records of what is discussed during each programme, Alphonso reassured that all information remains private, and was only disseminated among the relevant stakeholders within the ministry, who would use the information to help with the creation and implementation of developmental policies.

“Even when we make notes, we don’t mention names, as to who said what or so on,” he stressed.

The Men’s Virtual Hangout is an online forum for Guyanese men to weigh in on certain issues affecting them, and ask pertinent questions about the topic and other issues they may have.
Each session, which is hosted via ZOOM, begins at 18:00 hours, and the topic for each week is uploaded to the Ministry’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mhsssgy, and the link for the Zoom hangout, which is a recurring link, is usually provided.