BRIDGE IS A COMMUNITY BASED ORG ON A MISSION TO ERADICATE GBV AND TEENAGE PREGNANCES IN WARD 28, BUHERA SOUTH.

After seeing an upsurge in gender based violence and teenage pregnancies, we decided to take it upon ourselves as responsible citizens to curb the problem by founding a community based org called BRIDGE. Together with other men and women who wanted to make a difference we co-founded BRIDGE in August 2020 with a vision to become a bridge to a violent free community. We are working on mediation and promotion of human rights concepts at community level.

We are based in Chapanduka village, Ward 28, Buhera South. Since the inception of this initiative we have managed to save some marriages as well as preventing violence through our counselling services and GBV awareness programmes. The community really embraced this initiative and the support is overwhelming as evidenced by the demand for our programmes in surrounding  villages that we have not been reached due to limited resources. Currently we are covering 2 villages only namely Chapanduka and Mahachi.

It is widely believed that males are the main culprits when it comes to gender based violence. We believe that a long term solution to women abuse is to incorporate men in the healing process and offer them counselling as well. This will help them deal with the issue that make them have violent tendencies. It is worrying that the victims of violence after they have had counselling they go back to the same violent environment without the perpetrator getting help, so that is why we decided to counsel the perpetrators as well.

lf people understand how violence adversely affect their spouses and children then they will make informed choices which will result in preventing rather than managing violence. Pre-conceived ideas in society have designed that the man has the upper hand and this can make girls and women more vulnerable to HIV, unplanned pregnancies, abuse and abandonment. The main aim is to transform the mindset of men in regard to the issue.

BRIDGE is advocating for dialog between married couples. One of the greatest causes of break-down in relationship is failure to discuss shared concerns. Some people tend to bottle up their feelings whereas others become confrontational and fight other people because of negative emotions they keep holding onto. So when we founded BRIDGE we focused on training, we wanted our volunteers to go out there and train and educate our community about gender based violence. In addition to counselling services we are focusing on GBV awareness. To this effect we have formed 2 interactive classes of twelve male participants per class in two villages. We started these interactive classes with the objective of increasing men’s understanding of all forms of violence.

Our near future aim is to utilise the recently launched information hub at Chapanduka secondary school where we can have an interface with students and share information on all forms of violence, teenage pregnancy and substance abuse. From our local community we have prominent professionals like Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Chartered Accountants, just to name a few who we can use as role models and source of inspiration and imitation for our youths. With resources permitting, BRIDGE wish to facilitate visits by these high-achievers to our local secondary schools’ information hubs with the aim of sharing their success stories with students. This will influence and inspire teens to be their best selves, they will also learn strategies for achieving their goals. Teens are influenced by a variety of adults and peers , so these role models can be instrumental in developing career aspirations and educational goals. It is also BRIDGE’s aim to motivate these youngsters towards unhealthy behaviour like gender based violence, bullying, unprotected sex and substance abuse through its programmes.

We are calling upon organisations and individuals who wish to partner with us for this noble cause to feel free to do so. Those who can help by providing financial or technical support are most welcome.

bridge07@gmail.com