Harare Zimbabwe (News of the South)-World Vision is taking the fight against Gender Based Violence (GBV) to the clergy incorporating various church leaders in some hot spots in the country as it adopts an asymmetric approach to the scourge.
The organisation has since drawn a wide array of church clergymen from various churches that include the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (ZAOGA), Salvation Army, AFM and other apostolic sects.
The clergy are drawn from Epworth and Chihota, two of the country’s hotspots in terms of GBV and attendant STI’s.
According to the United FPA in Zimbabwe, about 1 in 3 women aged 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about 1 in 4 women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15.
A joint study on domestic violence in Zimbabwe by the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender, and Community Development (MWAGCD) and Gender Links over two thirds of surveyed women (69 percent) reported being the victim of intimate partner violence.
This includes physical, sexual or psychological abuse by a current or former spouse or partner within their lifetime, while 41 percent of men surveyed admitted to inflicting abuse against their partner.
The same report specifies that 56 percent of female respondents experienced emotional abuse by their partner, 33 percent experienced physical abuse, 31 percent experienced economic abuse, and 22 percent experienced sexual abuse.
World Vision has thus sought to engage the assistance of church leaders who are deemed to have greater influence on the populations as compared to other channels of influence.
Some sources state that deep-rooted cultural values perpetuate instances of domestic violence in Zimbabwe.
According to a policy brief on gender-based violence and spousal abuse in Zimbabwe women’s economic dependence on their husbands increases their vulnerability to abusive intimate-partner relationships.
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