News / Religion
Involve women in community development, churches urged
30 Sep 2024 at 10:03hrs | Views
The St Luke's Apostolic Ejiwel Jekenishen Church leader, Arch-Bishop (Dr) Phillip Pferedzai has urged indigenous churches to ensure inclusivity of women and girls to complement development amongst communities throughout the country.
Speaking during the official opening of the Women's Assembly offices at their Maunganidze headquarters, Dr Pferedzai has commended women for their commitment to prove that they have the capacity to initiate successful projects without close supervision and monitoring from their male counterparts.
"This state of the art property has been spearheaded by women without supervision or monitoring from their male counterparts. As the church, we have realised that women and girls have the capacity to transform their respective communities on a condition that they are granted permission to contribute towards development," Arch-Bishop Pferedzai said.
"Resources were solely mobilised from their coffers as Women's Assembly. Our duty was just to observe and they have proven that without their commitment and involvement in life-changing and empowerment projects, we realise stunted growth amongst communities and absolute failure," Arch-Bishop Pferedzai added.
"As indigenous churches, let us give or empower women and girls to take the lead in all projects or infrastructure-related initiatives. Let us put women and girls in front to realise further development of our communities," Arch-Bishop Pferedzai said.
While addressing thousands who were gathered during the same occasion, Mr Charles Maunganidze who is the local village head has expressed his gratitude following the church's contribution towards community transformation.
"These infrastructures like the one commissioned today helps in unlocking value for our communities. Through these developments, dignity will be added and it attracts development of other related infrastructure," Maunganidze said.
"When the church empowers women and girls, it helps in reducing drugs and substance abuse and uptake since they have natural expertise in always bringing excellent results," Maunganidze remarks.
Meanwhile, Rumbidzai Magweregwede who is the representative and leader of Women's Assembly (under St Luke's Apostolic Ejiwel Jekenishen church has applauded the government of Zimbabwe for its mantra of leaving no one and no place behind which gave them confidence to contribute towards the development of their localities.
"We gained confidence from the Zimbabwean government's mantra of leaving no one and no place behind. We also realised from the First Lady, Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa who works around the clock in her quest to ensure women and girls are fully empowered," Magweregwede said.
"It is through some of the skills which we acquired from her Angel of Hope Foundation where we realised that our involvement in community development will complement the country to attain an upper middle income economy by the year 2030," Magweregwede added.
"We also express our gratitude to the Arch-Bishop who gave us an opportunity to fully participate in the development of our communities independently," Magweregwede further remarks.
"We need girls to learn from these developments and make sure that they complement where we left since they would ensure Women's Assembly legacy continues when we retire or when they assume church developmental duties or assignments," Magweregwede said.
Despite the fact that there had been significant strides in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, there is still much work to be done to create an enabling environment for women to thrive in the economy.
Zimbabwe was and is still implementing programmes to mainstream women in the key economic sectors including mining, agriculture (farming), trade, tourism, among others.
Through mining, Zimbabwe has seen legislative and policy reforms that had led to the opening up of the sector, thereby allowing entry of women into small-scale miners.
Women throughout the country also played a pivotal role in economic development through the manufacturing of products such as clothing, leather products, furniture and baskets among others
Speaking during the official opening of the Women's Assembly offices at their Maunganidze headquarters, Dr Pferedzai has commended women for their commitment to prove that they have the capacity to initiate successful projects without close supervision and monitoring from their male counterparts.
"This state of the art property has been spearheaded by women without supervision or monitoring from their male counterparts. As the church, we have realised that women and girls have the capacity to transform their respective communities on a condition that they are granted permission to contribute towards development," Arch-Bishop Pferedzai said.
"Resources were solely mobilised from their coffers as Women's Assembly. Our duty was just to observe and they have proven that without their commitment and involvement in life-changing and empowerment projects, we realise stunted growth amongst communities and absolute failure," Arch-Bishop Pferedzai added.
"As indigenous churches, let us give or empower women and girls to take the lead in all projects or infrastructure-related initiatives. Let us put women and girls in front to realise further development of our communities," Arch-Bishop Pferedzai said.
While addressing thousands who were gathered during the same occasion, Mr Charles Maunganidze who is the local village head has expressed his gratitude following the church's contribution towards community transformation.
"These infrastructures like the one commissioned today helps in unlocking value for our communities. Through these developments, dignity will be added and it attracts development of other related infrastructure," Maunganidze said.
"When the church empowers women and girls, it helps in reducing drugs and substance abuse and uptake since they have natural expertise in always bringing excellent results," Maunganidze remarks.
Meanwhile, Rumbidzai Magweregwede who is the representative and leader of Women's Assembly (under St Luke's Apostolic Ejiwel Jekenishen church has applauded the government of Zimbabwe for its mantra of leaving no one and no place behind which gave them confidence to contribute towards the development of their localities.
"We gained confidence from the Zimbabwean government's mantra of leaving no one and no place behind. We also realised from the First Lady, Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa who works around the clock in her quest to ensure women and girls are fully empowered," Magweregwede said.
"It is through some of the skills which we acquired from her Angel of Hope Foundation where we realised that our involvement in community development will complement the country to attain an upper middle income economy by the year 2030," Magweregwede added.
"We also express our gratitude to the Arch-Bishop who gave us an opportunity to fully participate in the development of our communities independently," Magweregwede further remarks.
"We need girls to learn from these developments and make sure that they complement where we left since they would ensure Women's Assembly legacy continues when we retire or when they assume church developmental duties or assignments," Magweregwede said.
Despite the fact that there had been significant strides in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, there is still much work to be done to create an enabling environment for women to thrive in the economy.
Zimbabwe was and is still implementing programmes to mainstream women in the key economic sectors including mining, agriculture (farming), trade, tourism, among others.
Through mining, Zimbabwe has seen legislative and policy reforms that had led to the opening up of the sector, thereby allowing entry of women into small-scale miners.
Women throughout the country also played a pivotal role in economic development through the manufacturing of products such as clothing, leather products, furniture and baskets among others
Source - Byo24News
