Heal Zimbabwe pushes towards 13 Million Voices for Peace by 2018!

Heal Zimbabwe has commended the church for launching an election campaign dubbed "The Christian Vote 2018" on 27 June 2017 in Harare.

"The campaign is against political candidates who promote violence and abuse political power and influence to perpetrate violence. Heal Zimbabwe notes that the campaign is a positive step as it adds a voice on the need for violence free elections. The move by the church is most welcomed by Heal Zimbabwe because it complements the Organisation's own initiative which is the 13 Million Voices for Peace Campaign for a peaceful environment in Zimbabwe before during and after the 2018 election. The campaign is running under the hashtag #13Milvoices4Peace," said the trust.

"Heal Zimbabwe joined other stakeholders at the Christian Vote Campaign as a way of reiterating its Commitment to working on peacebuilding and social cohesion in the Country.  Working with various key stakeholders, Heal Zimbabwe continue to encourage key Stakeholders such as the Youth, War Veterans, Traditional leaders, politicians, women, the church and security services to come together to pledge and commit to campaign for peaceful 2018 elections."

Speaking at the Christian Vote Campaign, Heal Zimbabwe representative  Cleto Manjova commended the move by the churches to call for peace ahead of the 2018 elections.

He said "...The move by the church to launch a peace campaign against violent elections is commendable and as Heal Zimbabwe, we will partner the church in initiating campaigns for peaceful elections ahead of the 2018 elections..".

Heal Zimbabwe appreciates the fact that the church has over the years been able to stand resolute and in unity with civil society organizations and has encouraged peace among citizens.

This critical role by the church has strengthened local credibility and trust in the Church as a key stakeholder in healing and reconciliation processes. It is upon such trust and credibility that the Church, if recognized and given opportunity, could become key in the crucial domains of peace building and reconciliation efforts.

Heal Zimbabwe under its peace campaign is working with communities to create platforms that encourage peaceful coexistence. These include but not limited to Youth targeted sports for Peace tournaments, Community collaborative neutral platforms through Nhimbe or Amalima, Women Safe spaces for reconciliation through establishment of peace caravans, peace clean ups and door to door campaigns.

The main objective is to encourage Zimbabwean citizens to preach, promote and uphold peace ahead of the 2018 elections. In the past elections for example, youths have been widely abused and incentivised by politicians to engage in violence as a way of campaigning and settling political scores. Therefore the need to create a platform for community leaders to make public peace pledges is the initial step in the right direction.

The initiatives also encourage ordinary community members to shun violence and participate in political processes peacefully. Public peace pledges are an initiative Heal Zimbabwe believe can give communities room to demand adherence to peaceful conduct by all stakeholders especially during elections. It forms a key pillar of the social contract for every community.

Heal Zimbabwe continues to spread the campaign to all provinces targeting community members, political leaders, youths, women, traditional leaders and aspiring candidates to pledge to uphold peace before, during and after the 2018 elections. The ultimate result is to have the entire population calling for peaceful conduct in all democratic interactions particularly political processes within and across their political affiliations.