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‘Women should be self-reliant’

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WOMEN should initiate income generating and self-help projects so that they can have a fallback position in the event that they divorce, the True Apostolic Faith Mission Church has said.

WOMEN should initiate income generating and self-help projects so that they can have a fallback position in the event that they divorce, the True Apostolic Faith Mission Church has said.

by Shadreck Maririmba

Speaking at a three-day church conference in Gwanda, organiser of the event, Tabeth Bathlomeyo Chivanda, said women should have initiative and be independent rather than rely solely on their husbands.

“As women who are married, we should not be dependent on our husbands, but we should complement their efforts to feed the family, it is high time women came out of their shells of wanting to be fed to be breadwinners,” Chivanda said.

The conference, which ran from July 3 to 5 under the theme Today’s Women, Rise Up and Find Jesus, was aimed at strengthening the marriage institution in the face of escalating divorce cases nationwide.

“As a church, we have not been telling our daughters about the goodness of marriage. What they know are the statistics of divorce rates and issues pertaining to abuse only, thus many view marriage as a bad thing. Here, we have been teaching mothers to be exemplary to their daughters so that they don’t end up selling their bodies for sex,” said Chivanda.

Women from a cross section of Zimbabwe shared ideas on how to be successful and happy in their marriages by taking time to pray and share their problems in a bid to have a divorce-free country.

Angela Kuwaza from Harare who attended the conference said: “As a young woman I face challenges on how to handle my marriage since the aunts who used to advise young women no longer take up that role, but this conference has taught me to be a self-starter in cash projects and also how to respect my family and husband.”

Most women at the conference took time to have night vigils praying for each other and said the conference was a success and they hope each of them would go and implement what they learnt in order to achieve violence-free environments in their marriages.

The conference ended on high note with many women from different backgrounds vowing to help save the marriage institution.