On May 5-6, 2010, the World Population Foundation (WPF) organized a training workshop on the theme of counseling for male perpetrators of gender-based violence. The workshop was facilitated by Rachel Ploem, a technical consultant on gender and women’s health and participants included staff from the WPF and the Centre for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP).

The workshop enabled participants to look at counseling models for male perpetrators of gender-based violence and to learn from the experiences of other countries in particular South and Indonesia. WPF have been running these programmes for several years and the effectiveness of such models can be seen through a decrease in violence against women. Rachel’s sharing of her experience in this area enabled the participants of the workshop to make plans for men’s counseling services within Vietnam.

Such counseling sessions aim not only to help men to change their inappropriate traditional opinions, but also to create chances for them to share feelings, this helps men to be more responsible, and have healthier relationships with their partners. Rachel’s sharing of her wide experience in the area of gender equality enabled the participants to understand more about the characteristics of masculinity and how this related to violence, this helped the participants to understand more about implementing counseling services for men.

Over the course of the workshop the participants learnt a great deal about counseling services for male perpetuators of violence against women. This learning will be applied in gender-based violence programmes in Cua Lo and it will also be applied in counseling sessions for young men who have recently become married or are about to marry. In this way it is hoped that men will be able to have healthier relationships and that the scourge of domestic violence will be reduced.