Prisca Manyiwa in Kwekwe
THE church has taken gender-based violence to artisanal miners who are commonly referred to as makorokoza.
Zimbabwe Association of Church Related Hospitals says it has taken that move as a way of trying to reach out to this group which has not been turning out in the public awareness campaigns meetings in the communities.
ZACH has been implementing the Start Awareness Support Action (SASA!) campaign in six districts of the country and during their awareness campaigns they realised that artisinal miners have been lagging behind.
Speaking to journalists during a sensitisation workshop in Gweru on Friday, Umguza district programs officer Faith Mutete said ZACH has decided to reach out to the artisinal miners in order to reduce cases of violence against women and gender based violence.
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“We are looking forward to implement this initiative in other five districts because we have seen that it has positive results.
“Mostly men do not have time to attend community meetings because they will be busy fending for their families so we found it worthy to take the services to their place of work,” she said.
She said they had been doing the Mobile One Stop Centre outreach targeting amakorokoza in Umguza, Hope Fountain and Ntabazinduna after realising that some people are not able to reach the static site which is Nyamandhlovu Hospital so we have decided to go with the services to the people in community and mining areas.
“We realised that the artisanal miners were lagging behind so we decided to follow them to the mines and address them there because our aim is to reduce cases of violence.
“We are offering counselling services, legal advice and for medical examination we refer them to local facility or Nyamandhlovu Hospital which is the One Stop Centre,” said Mutete.
– HMETRO
