Churches Commit to Ending Child Marriages (project from 2022 to early January 2025)

The ADA project has assisted in bringing an understanding to early child marriages in the based organizations (FBOs), particularly the apostolic sects in Chitungwiza, Epworth, Ruwa, and Mbare where its prevalence is much higher than any other religious institution. Through engagements with INERELA+ Zimbabwe, some churches committed to encouraging their members to stop engaging in child marriage as it is a violation of child rights. INERELA+ Zimbabwe Country Coordinator Mr. Juru reported that during the three-year implementation of the ADA Project, INERELA+ Zimbabwe had several intervention programmes with different church leaders from the apostolic sects where they talked about child marriages and the dangers associated with it. In their teachings, they pointed out to the different apostolic sect leaders that child marriages are also linked to social problems such as high infant and maternal mortalities, gender-based violence, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It was through these engagements that some church leaders committed to eradicating the practice in their churches. According to Mr Juru, besides creating awareness of child marriages among the apostolic church members they also worked hard in fighting the stigma and discrimination of People Living with HIV in Faith Based Organisations. The project found out that religious beliefs and practices sometimes have been used to encourage people with HIV to abandon medical treatment and this has resulted in some people dying because of some complications. INERELA+ Zimbabwe further collaborated with fellow stakeholders such as SAfAIDS to lobby the government to raise the Age of Majority Act and the Marriage Act. According to Mr Juru, the ADA project had a huge impact on the communities as so many changes took place during the three years of implementation. Small CBOs (Mbare, Chitungwiza, and Ruwa) fighting child marriages grew from the synergies created with INERELA+ Zimbabwe, SAfAIDS and their voices are now being heard by the government as the ADA project is helping unlock advocacy doors towards the abolishment of child marriages.

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