Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
WOMEN within Apostolic sects have formed an organisation to educate their male counterparts about child marriages and accessing antenatal care, among others issues.
The Apostolic Women Empowerment Trust (AWET) was formed by concerned women at the height of rampant child marriages and other such cases within the church.
AWET has more than 40 branches across the country.
Speaking during a recent Family Aids Care Trust (FACT) organised workshop in Kwekwe, AWET point person in the town, Madzimai Mufaro Mangwiro said the era of child marriages was over.
“Gone are the days when one old man just wakes up claiming to have dreamt of a woman.
We are moving to put an end to such norms that are threatening to wipe out the current generation of girls,” she said.
“We decided to form the organisation after realising that we need to educate our male counterparts about marrying under-aged girls whereby a man can simply say I have dreamt of that girl and he marries her.
“We are trying hard to educate them on the dangers they are faced in doing so.”
Madzimai Mangwiro said AWET has made progress in convincing women within the church to access prenatal and antenatal care.
“We are fighting hard in trying to convince our female colleagues so that they visit clinics and health institutions when they are pregnant instead of giving birth in houses which exposes them to a number of dangers.
We are trying to do away with such practices,” she said.
Madzimai Mangwiro said they were still facing resistance from some sections of the church who felt they should not forgo their church’s “tradition”.
“We are still facing resistance from both men and females who feel the way of doing things within the church is the best.
We are, however, not relenting and we will continue fighting till we win the war,” she said.
“It’s not easy to convince people to leave their way of doing things, it takes time but eventually we will get there.”
Apostolic sects hogged the limelight last year after a 13-year-old girl died while giving birth at an Apostolic shrine in Marange Manicaland Province.
Since then, cries have been growing louder for interventions within the sects to stop marrying under-aged girls.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same function, Ms Pretty Ncube from Zimbabwe Association of Church Related Hospitals (ZACH) said cases of child marriages remain high in Kwekwe district despite the age of consent having been changed from 16 to 18 years by the Supreme Court.
“We are yet to see the results according to the statistics we are receiving.
It might take time and a lot of awareness for people to understand the dynamics of what exactly is transpiring and what it means,” she said.
Ms Ncube implored men to desist from abusing under-aged girls.
The Government has since declared war on child marriages as they threaten to wipe out the current generation.
FACT is implementing a project to empower adolescent girls so that they come up with solutions to the barriers they encounter in accessing care and treatment services.
The programme is being implemented in Kwekwe, Umguza, Umzingwane and Chimanimani.
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