Craig Wilkinson | Founder and CEO of Father a Nation 

 Close to sixty percent of South African children are growing up without a present and engaged father. Research shows that fatherlessness is the single biggest driver of violent crime globally. By failing to father our children South Africa has been growing an army of dangerous men. We have the highest rate of rape and gender-based violence (GBV) in the world. Our murder rate is almost 8 times higher than the USA and 37 times higher than the UK.

Men who have had an absent or abusive father grow up wounded. And if they’ve had no male mentors or role models to teach them good, positive masculinity they often have a distorted concept of what it means to be a man. Wounded men with false notions of what it means to be a man are the primary cause of masculine abuse in all its forms. This is not something that will self-correct. Wounded men raise wounded boys who become wounded men who wound. We need to break the cycle. Unless we deal decisively with this our future is in very real danger.

Father A Nation (FAN) has been working with men and boys since 2010. If we can equip and inspire enough men to use their strength to love, serve and protect, we will turn the tide against crime, violence, GBV, corruption and social disintegration and build a nation that is safe, secure and prosperous for all.

There is no greater nation building imperative for South Africa than the restoration of men.