BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– Humanitarian programming to address Gender Based Violence in emergencies has gained greater attention in recent years and Tinkhundla and chiefdoms have jumped on bandwagon.
with focused interventions to better meet the needs of survivors and communities. Pastors, Chiefs and Community leaders have started engaging community members including community leaders with the hope to see the success of GBV prevention and response programming.
Community leaders carry great responsibility and influence in communities, particularly in emergency settings. As critical stakeholders, GBV programs have long engaged community leaders as gatekeepers, service providers, and agents of change.
The Nhlangano AIDS Training Information and Counseling Center (NATICC) a faith-based, non-profit Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) that provides information, training and counselling in partnership with World Vision Eswatini is currently conducting an inception meeting with local Church Pastors at Gege Inkhundla.
Two churches from each of the 11 chiefdoms are represented by Pastors, youth and Pastor’s wives.
The purpose of this inception meeting is to introduce GBV and teenage pregnancy prevention projects to the religious leaders as they are key stakeholders.
NATICC Executive Director Mr Sisekelo Nzima said the role of the church, Tinkhundla and Chiefdoms in fighting GBV was paramount.
He highlighted that their role was to look after everyone in the community including those who are abused in the community, even those who are living in poverty as well as those who are not attending schools and even ensuring the availability of clean water.
He encouraged the churches to take responsibility and care for each other holistically.
“The churches need to advocate for everyone in the community so that crime and poverty can end. He also encourages them to take the workshop seriously and use what they gained from the workshop to change the community and work collaboratively with other churches to minimise all evil that is happening,” he said.
Meanwhile the Program Manager Kenneth Makhanya highlighted the project overview on GBV to the pastors. He also facilitated on GBV prevention using bible scriptures, a case study sampled from 2 Samuel 13 v 1-22 (the story of Ammon and Tamari).
Pastor Amon Dlamini unpacked the role of families in the pursuit of children’s spiritual nurture and well-being. He also highlighted the sign of brokenness and evidence of wholeness. The training is still ongoing.
“Working with community leaders to address GBV is a very good and promising approach because community leaders are the guardians of all our beliefs and customs. Because GBV is rooted in beliefs and customs, trying to address GBV without engaging community leaders can lead to a big conflict, and you won’t have any impact. Community leaders also play roles in providing responses to GBV survivors,”said Dlamini.
In addition he said survivors go to chiefs of villages to bring their concerns and experiences, and the leaders have practices for dealing with concerns and an approach to justice that is based first on keeping social cohesion, but GBV cannot be resolved like any other conflict.
He said based on his experience he learned that it is more challenging to engage community leaders in some places than others.
“Sometimes religious aspects make it more challenging. But if you ask any leader to describe what a leader is, what a leader does, they will talk about protecting the community. And that is also what we want to protect women and girls in the community,” he said.
