Gutu Peace club tackles Early Child Marriages and GBV during 16 Days of Gender Activism
As part of efforts to eradicate early child marriages and Gender Based Violence (GBV), a Community Peace Club (CPC) established by communities working with Heal Zimbabwe in Gutu ward 6 has embarked on a community awareness raising exercise.
Between 29 and 30 November 2021, the CPC launched a 16 Days of Activism against GBV blitz that will see the CPC embarking on a door to door exercise conscientising community members on the need to end child marriages and CBO.The objective of the awareness meetings is to ensure better human rights protection for young girls and women.
The monthly conflict mapping exercise conducted by the CPC in November noted that early child marriages and GBV were some of the major causes of conflicts within the ward. Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, the CPC chairperson, Muchaneta Mundeyiri highlighted that there was need for local communities to complement government’s efforts to end early child marriages and GBV for better human rights protection.”During the 16 days of gender activism, we want to sensitize our local communities on the evils of early child marriages and GBV.We believe it’s our own contribution as a community in complementing government’s efforts towards creating a safe environment for young girls and women free from any form of abuse”, she said. The awareness meetings will target key stakeholders such as Traditional leaders (mostly Village heads) and religious leaders since in most cases they are enablers of various forms of abuse such as early child marriages and GBV.
The meetings by Heal Zimbabwe are part of efforts to empower local communities to help safeguard against human rights abuse and also help build peaceful communities. Heal Zimbabwe utilizes various strategies to address conflicts in local communities. One of these ways is the use of community dialogues, an initiative for communities to discuss and collectively identify ways through which they can proffer solutions to problems in their communities. Such platforms also facilitate local level conversations on pertinent issues affecting communities as well as create socially cohesive communities.
