The Forum for African Women Educationalists-Zimbabwe Chapter (FAWEZI) has held its first set of workshops aimed at sensitizing project communities on life skills, Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG), laws and practises around VAWG. The workshops were held in the Shamva and Chitungwiza Districts on the 14th and 17th of October 2019 respectively.
FAWEZI held these in line with one of its current projects titled “Empowered Adolescent Girls for Improved Quality of life.” The project is being implemented in partnership with Action Aid Zimbabwe (AAZ), Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe (LCDZ) and Aids Counselling Trust (ACT). The overall goal of the entire project is to develop a well-rounded Zimbabwean adolescent girl by implementing unique best practices and models to address three thematic areas; Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and Economic Empowerment (EE).
The specific objectives of the sensitisation workshops were therefore to sensitize young women and men on life skills and VAWG, create a deep appreciation and ownership of the project and deliberate on the project road map and the proposed interventions. FAWEZI also explained on the disability inclusion factor which will mainly be buttressed by the presence of LCDZ in the consortium.
During the workshops FAWEZI managed to pick the prevailing issues around the three thematic areas in both districts and also went on to draw similarities and differences between issues arising in Chitungwiza and Shamva. Top among the lists were child marriages and Domestic Violence which were attributed to economic hardships and cultural or religious beliefs.
To further augment the discussion FAWEZI invited the executive Director of Chengeto Zimbabwe Trust, Rejoice Nharaunda Makawa to unpack the three topic areas. As a facilitator she used a drama group to act out scenes of VAWG which were contextual to the District of the day. In Shamva the drama touched on issues of gold panning, domestic violence, child marriage and polygamy. In Chitungwiza the group focused more on scenes of teen pregnancy, rape including marital and other forms of domestic violence.
During the discussions to trace the reasons for domestic violence the participants both males and females stated among others: power dynamics between men and women, economic hardships (stress) and bride prize as a basis for the abuse of wives (it’s like buying a commodity and so wives should always seek to please their buyer/husband )
There were also pleas for the provision of safe houses for the victims of violence, more engagements with the police and increased awareness raising especially on the negative contributions of some cultural and religious beliefs towards VAWG.
Prior to these community sensitisation workshops FAWEZI also held inception meetings with representatives from project schools in both Chitungwiza and Shamva Districts. These were attended by School heads, teachers and members of the School Development Committees (SDC’s). The project schools from Shamva are Wadzanai Primary and Secondary, Madziwa Mine Primary and Secondary and Shamva Ming Chang Primary. In Chitungwiza the schools are Chaminuka Primary, Tafadzwa Primary, Seke Mhuriimwe Secondary, Seke 5 Secondary and Seke 3 High. The facilitators during the inception meeting were members of the FAWEZI and LCDZ staff.
FAWEZI 