Protect our women and girls...UDACIZA
Churches march against gender based violence
Churches have been in the long run blamed as some of the perpetrators of gender based violence where children are often married at a young age.
To curb this, Gender equality and Gender-based violence five-year policy was launched in 2016. The policy was established under a project called Preventing Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Young Women, which World Vision Zimbabwe implemented, UN Women and Danida.
According to an article that was done by Newsday, the policy is in line with section 56(3) of the Zimbabwean Constitution which calls for the fair treatment of any person including women and girls.
“The policy was formulated as part of a project called Preventing Violence Against Adolescent Girls and Young Women,” read the article.
Some of the church leaders within UDACIZA received training on possible methods and ways of handling gender-based issues as well as child marriages that are happening within their constituency.
“ The church leaders were also equipped with tools to enable them to transmit the knowledge to other females at the grassroots level,” read the article.
In an interview with The Christian Voice, Bishop Edson Shamu, said they stand guided by the policy in making sure that women and girls are protected hence they have partnered with Zimbabwe Christian Alliance to raise awareness and educate congregants on the importance of eliminating gender-based violence.
“ We have seen quite a number of reports in the media where members of our sect are abusing young girls and this initiative is part of our many strategies that we are implementing to make sure that we bring an end to this culture. It will take time but we have hope that we will be able to eliminate this culture for good,” he said.
Bishop Shamu mentioned through their partnership with ZCA, they will use different platforms to educate not only members of their church on the policy that was formulated in 2016. He said this will enable them to reach out to a lot of people who are also not part of their constituency.
“We will use platforms such as radio, television and social media to share and educate people on our policy which advocates for the protection of the girl child and women from gender-based violence. We hope this will also help in shedding light to the community that as a church we also do not allow for these cultures to flourish but we are working towards ending it,” he said.