The Sunday Mail
Religious Affairs Editor
FEMALE members of the Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe are lobbying for financial support for females to advance their schooling in 2016.
Bishop Gloria Chitanda.(Picture by rumbidzai nhaitayi)
Udaciza’s national leader for women, Bishop Gloria Chitanda, said child marriages had robbed girls of much-needed advanced education.
Bishop Chitanda said for long, girls and women in various Apostolic sects had been seen as child bearers and domestic workers — a mentality that was slowly changing as more women become breadwinners.
“… we are lobbying for women to go back to school so we can run businesses and do our own projects,” Bishop Chitanda of Johanne Masowe weMugovera, said.
Zimbabwe’s Constitution says no person maybe compelled to enter marriage against their will. However according to the 2014 Multiple Indication Cluster Survey, 31 percent of girls in Zimbabwe are married before age 18.
Limited access to education, poverty and cultural norms have been major contributory factors to this.
Said Bishop Chitanda, “Though these cultures have been attached to us Vapostori, some of them were already in our society; it had nothing to do with one belonging to an Apostolic sect.
‘‘It’s a life people lived without knowledge and girls might have ended up wanting it also.
“But now we have O and A-Level children we see eventually getting married while also pursuing a career.
‘‘It is imperative to drive home the fact that a girl can also achieve on the same level as a boy.”
Bishop Chitanda said member sects were regulated by guidelines stipulated by the Constitution and Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development Ministry to ensure girls were protected.
She said they were also moving around churches to discourage polygamous marriages.
