Today marks the end of 16 days of activism Against Gender Based Violence (GBV) calling for united, global action to end all forms of violence against women and girls.
Women from all works of life however gathered in Harare today, celebrating and advocating against gender based violence.
263times got in touch with Ms Elizabeth Parirenyatwa who was the founder of the gathering and she expressed her gratitude God and the responsible authorities for allowing the gathering to take place as there is need to be productive as women saying no to gender based violence.
”I want to thank God today and the responsible authority, its a beautiful day with the women here who came from all over including the widows, we are gathered here because we want to be productive as women and say no to GBV.
”When we do violence, in our homes we are a defeated home , community in the country therefore we are saying no to gender based violence which must stop,
”Am a former prison officer myself and l have seen women incarcerated for crimes that they did through violent nature, we are saying as women we need help to ensure that they know how to handle themselves so that the put themselves in gender activities,
”We are here because we do not want women to use cooking oil to burn their husbands but we want they to use cooking oil for making fresh chips.” She said.
Furthermore, survivors of violence were being aged to speak out and everyone should have a role to play to ensure that justice prevail.
”We want survivors of violence to speak out more than ever before and everyone has a role to play to ensure they can have justice, a,m glad our Zimbabwean women are intelligent.” Elizabeth said.
The women believed that their plea have been heard by their father in heaven as they were singing and rejoicing in the name of the lord.
”We have been heard by our father in heaven , because whatever is bound on earth is bound on heaven and whatever that is loosened on earth is loosened on heaven.
The women failed to do the march because of Covid- 19 restrictions and they had to campaign through the gathering.
At the gathering the people who were gathered were observing Covid- 19 restrictions with sanitizers, face mask and they were taking temperature.
”Because of Covid- 19 we could not march that’s why we are gathered here, and we were just about 100 people doing requirements of the responsible authorities,
”We had sanitizers, face masks and were taking temperature.” She said.
The pandemic of violence against women is not new, even before Covid – 19 hit Zimbabwe, globally 243 million Women and girls were abused.
Women were claiming their freedom and saying no to gender based violence.
