THE newly formed Council of Churches for Africa (CCA), has vowed to fight Gender based violence (GBV) against women and girls which manifests in the form of child marriages, sexual harassment and gender inequality among others.
By Patricia Mashiri recently in Bulawayo
Cases of Gender based violence and child marriages have been on the increase of late and the new CCA is set amongst other things to advocate against GBV and all forms of violence against women and girls. The CCA is a group of churches that have partnered and are working together.These include Apostolic churches , Zion Churches and Pentecostal churches led by Bishop Rocky Moyo.
Speaking during the launch of the CCA women’s fellowship in Bulawayo, Dr Stembiso Nyoni, the Minister of Women Affairs, Community Development, Small to Medium Enterprises and Coperative Development who was the guest of honour said, the church plays an important role in society and it recognizes the differentiated needs of women.
As we launch the CCA Women’s Fellowship today, we should bear in mind the critical role that the church plays in prevention, intervention and healing from GBV.
“I would like to applaud the CCA Women’s Fellowship for organizing this important event which I am quite positive will not only result in curbing gender based violence and perpetuate peace and harmony among spouses and families at large,” Dr Nyoni said.
She added that the church has an obligation to look after those who are powerless and weak and should not take advantage or abuse of desperate congregants.
Meanwhile, the Founder and President of CCA, Bishop Moyo said their mandate as the church was to unite and stand against child marriages, sexual abuse and emotional abuse against women and girls in the church.
“I have realized that the abuse we are talking about is more into churches. The pastors and prophets are abusing people in the church. I’m calling the church to stand up and say no to that. We want to say no to fake prophets, prophets that are abusing our children. We have heard too much in the media. We want the church to stop that so that we can speak to the world. We will continue fighting this GBV, we will never stop,” he said.
He added that there was a menace of drug abuse in the country and the church is supposed to play a role in helping the government stop alcohol, drug and substance abuse through the help of the women in churches. According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency, 33.7% of girls in Zimbabwe are married before the age of 18 and most of them are school drop outs.
Madzimai Mitchell Munyani-Senda applauded the church for positive the strides made so far in addressing gender inequality and equity in Apostolic, Zion and other indigenous churches.
“CCA has shown that keen interests in furthering women’s quest for advancement of gender equality and equity amongst the previously marginalised women in our society. Meanwhile, religious tolerance and co-existence has been realized as a reality rather than rhetoric since CCA has voluntarily partnered the government in making sure gender mainstreaming exists,” Madzimai Senda said.
