The Sunday Mail
Laurine Moyo
THE Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) hosted a campaign against suicide at the Harare Gardens a fortnight ago.
The highlight of the day was the commemoration of the World Suicide Prevention Day which was held after a service led by leader of Universal Church in Zimbabwe, Bishop Justice Colidiza.
The church has had countless individuals who come for counselling having planned suicide. As such, the church has played a major role in assisting people in such circumstances with psycho-social support, counselling and prayer. Taking an example from Exodus 20:13, Bishop Colidiza encouraged people not to resort to suicide no matter what challenges they face in life.
Addressing women, guest of honour who is also Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Nyasha Chikwinya said deciding to commit suicide is a display of cowardice as it proves that one has failed to challenge the troubles of this world.
She said women have to be strong enough to challenge whatever is ahead of them as they have been given more opportunities with the 50-50 policy.
“There is the 50-50 policy nowadays. Section 17 of the Zimbabwean Constitution of 2013 speaks of equal opportunities between men and women in all sectors of development,” she said.
She encouraged women who make up 52 percent of the population to play a pivotal role in building the economy.
Turning to the participation of women in community programs that the Ministry of Women Affairs provides, Minister Chikwinya’s thrust was on the Women’s Bank aimed at providing loans to business women.
She also announced the solar generation projects that have been rolled out which are friendly to the ozone layer and come in handy to curb the current shortages of electricity.
The Universal Church has hosted several awareness campaigns in the past years to address issues affecting communities.
World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is observed on September 10 every year to encourage worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicide.
Commemoration of the day was started in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP). Online sources state that 20 people fail their suicide attempt for every one that is successful.
Records state that an attempt is made once in every three seconds.
IASP president Brian Mishara noted that, “more people kill themselves than die in wars, terrorist acts and interpersonal violence combined”.
The number of people who commit suicide is expected to reach 1,5 million per year by 2020.
Recently, the Universal Prison Group also visited Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare, where they prayed for inmates and donated food items for the inmates. Bishop Colidiza and several pastors of the Universal Church took time to preach and pray for the inmates.
