International Men’s Day (IMD) 2011 will be celebrated in over 50 countries around the world on 19 November and the 2011 theme is:

Giving Boys the Best Possible Start in Life

IMD interfaces with MOVEMBER and also with Universal Children’s Day on November 20 and in focussing on the main challenges boys all over the world face, asks how we can come up with local solutions to global problems.

At Dads on the Air this week we explore what IMD means to organisers in Ireland and the USA. Listeners are invited to share their own thoughts on giving the best start to boys by contacting the IMD coordination team at http://www.international-mens-day.com/ The best solution oriented approach will be awarded a prize certificate for the IMD FLAGSHIP PROJECT.

Across the sea to Ireland

Our first guest today is Mick Kenny, the Chair of Men in Childcare Ireland coordinating a celebration of IMD in Ireland. Mick has been working in childcare for 19 years, for the last 15 years in the early years sector (preschool / kindergarten) and he speaks to us from Kilkenny.

Mick is fortunate to be working in an area he loves. He is working towards his vision of seeing children feel it is normal to be cared for by both men and women.

Hear what the community gains from accessing men for this career and also the benefits to the male childcare workers themselves.

Mick’s efforts to increase the contribution of men in raising boys fits neatly with the IMD theme in 2011 and it is told with a lilting Irish accent.

The IMD Poet in the USA

Today we are honored to welcome back to Dads on the Air John D Evans who is the Illinois Regional Coordinator for IMD in the USA. John is an educator, humanitarian, folklorist, author and poet whose literary work Diary of a Renaissance Man was named Children’s Choice 2008 by the International Readers’ Association, the Children’s Book Council and 10,000 school children.

In talking to John we find out how IMD will be celebrated in the Illinois area of the USA in 2011 as well as hearing something of what was achieved in 2010. We hear about a writing competition that is open to writers around the world.

As a special treat listeners can hear a reading by John D Evans of one of his stirring poems. Not to be missed.

John D Evans has made available for immediate release a poem on IMD which is reproduced below.

Need for IMD
International Men’s Day Poem

As long as there is a boy
Who never met his father
As long as there is a lad
Who has no “daddy and me” stories
As long as there is a male child
Who spends his time out of class
On vacations, game stations
Detentions and suspensions
As long as there is one
Lost, blind, refuse to see
There is a need for IMD

As long as there is a young man
Who feels his pants must sag
To feel cool, to dig deep
As long as there is a man-in-training
Who speaks profanely
As long as there is a child, a son
Who wears shackles and sores
Manners, pride, and courtesy
As long as there is a man,
Anywhere, needing to be free
There will be a need for IMD

As long as there is a man
Who sacrifices for his family
As long as there is a man
Who loves and whose love is sweet
As long as there is a man
Who keeps on climbing
To the tip-top and won’t stop
Pursuing, living a dream
As long as there is one
Any time - did, doing, done
There’s a need for IMD

As long as there is an old sage
Sitting beneath an ancient tree
As long as there is an aged one
Whose branches, veins run deep
As long as there is a patient one
Running this race, victoriously
Holding on to a rich history
The flame is in the torch
As long as there is one
Anywhere, I believe
We need IMD

by John D. Evans
Regional Coordinator, IMD Illinois (USA)