NGO capacitates church leaders to fight Gender-Based Violence

ARISE and Shine, a community development non-governmental organisation in Victoria Falls, has embarked on a programme to capacitate church leaders to fight gender-based violence.

The organisation recently conducted a workshop on GBV reporting and management as part of efforts to empower religious leaders with skills to prevent domestic violence.

The workshop was attended by 43 pastors and their spouses under the banner “Pastors’ Fraternity.”

The meeting was part of Arise and Shine’s commemorations of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which ran from November 25 to December 10.

Pastors were capacitated to handle domestic violence, manage conflict, stress and parenthood as well as child management.

Speaking on behalf of the organisation, Reverend Travena Chichoni of the Methodist Revival church, said the workshop was a success as it capacitated church leaders with skills to deal with social issues that affect congregants.

“It was our commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence with the pastor’s fraternity of Victoria Falls. As a private voluntary organisation, which has a mental wellness programme, we participate in the 16 days of GBV activism and our target is to have zero cases of gender-based violence by the year 2030,” he said.

A total of 43 pastors attended and they are all from the Victoria Falls Pastor’s Fraternity.

A life coach, Rev Chichoni made a presentation on domestic violence where she encouraged citizens to live in harmony.

“The workshop on GBV was for leaders and their spouses and covered areas around the causes and on how to prevent it. Arise and Shine for Community Development wanted to empower the leaders with tools to fight GBV and several topics to do with domestic violence were presented by experts in the field of social work,” she said.

Ms Nomagugu Nyoni, a social officer made a presentation on conflict management during which she implored citizens, particularly spouses to seek better ways of managing conflict.