Melo News | June,1 2024 | Chipata
The Eastern Provincial Gender Department is scheduled to undertake a capacity building engagement with Church Mother Body Leaders in Sinda District to strengthen sensitization on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Gender Rights Protection (GRP) programmes.
Eastern Provincial Gender Officer Warren Maimbolwa has noted that the church is a platform that the populace has confidence in hence an important one to be used in shaping behavioral change in communities through sensitization activities.
Melo Media reports that Mr. Maimbolwa said that the Gender Division is working to salvage on the moral authority that the church holds and use the clergy to preach issues that will help address matters that border on gender and encourage women and the youths to venture in activities that will help them contribute to the social economy development of the District and Nation at large.
“The church is an important partner in cultural resetting initiatives if partriachycal tendencies are to be gotten rid of in the District and at the National level,”he said.
The Provincial Gender Officer noted that it is important that the clergy able to invite experts in their midsts and raise awareness on gender equity and equality.
He said the Church can also be used to influence and increase participation of women and youths in productive activities such as accessing readily available grants for women led businesses, skills development and venturing into economic activities that will in turn uplift their livelihoods.
Mr. Maimbolwa further indicated that while the church offers counseling and reconciliation, it important that it also emphasizes on the need for victims of GBV to flee while they can and not wait until situations reach dangerous levels.
“The Gender Division has previously been working with only Traditional Leaders in sensitization programmes since they are the custodians of cultural norms which have proved to have influence in perpetuating vices such as Gender Based Violence (GBV), early marriages, and confining the male child into cattle herding,”he said.
The Provincial Gender Officer said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Acting District Commissioner who is also the Sinda District Administrative Officer Anslow Muchelemba to schedule to the meetings.
The main Church Mother Bodies scheduled to be engaged are Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), Independent Churches of Zambia (ICoZ), Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) and other Churches not affiliated to mentioned bodies but operating in the District.
The Eastern Provincial Administration Gender Division, and the National Guidance and Religious Department is undertaking an on going exercise in Nyimba, Petauke, Sinda, Katete and Chadiza and Kasenengwa Districts.
The Gender Division is also set to meet the District Gender Sub Committee of references, make an assessment of the activities as well as receive challenges and recommendations of the committee in order to improve and strengthen it’s functions in the District.
