Creators of Peace Circle with a difference, Gweru, Zimbabwe
On 11 May, the Gweru Creators of Peace facilitators, Angie Katito and Adelaide Mhunduru held a Creators Peace Circle (CoP) with a difference. In attendance were five ladies and two men and an official from the Social Welfare Department. This was the first time in Zimbabwe that the team had included men. The two men were Abel Katito the Initiatives of Change (IofC) Zimbabwe chairman and the secretary of the organization, Roy Ncube.
Concerns raised were:
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Bad behaviour from young people. This was becoming a real concern as there were now many children born out of wedlock and it was becoming acceptable to have sex out of marriage.
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The older generation was no longer setting a good example to the young
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Corruption was now rampant, in government circles, work places and in the community in general. The major concern was the corruption on the roads perpetuated by the police force.
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There was also the issue of discrimination against the girl-child.
As we discussed and shared, we came up with the following solutions:
The group agreed to first of all identify what their part is in all these concerns. Abel suggested that we could use the church, the community, and individuals in addressing these concerns.
It was also necessary to sensitize the different groups by sharing the four moral standards of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love.
On corruption, the group agreed that each member had a responsibility to avoid corruption by not being party to it. Adelaide related her ordeal at the hands of the police who wanted her to pay a bribe. She told how she spent two hours in the hands of the police until she took the case to the higher office. In the end she got an apology for the delay. This was a case of standing up for what one believes and not being party to corruption.
The Social Welfare Officer also highlighted to the meeting that there was corruption in her department, especially on food distribution to the needy, which sometimes ended up being taken by government or party officials. She was very grateful for participating in the PC and felt she had benefited a lot from the discussions. She invited the team to train more people in the Welfare Department and was encouraged by the four moral standards which she felt would be very useful in her own life and family. She also shared that the theme on forgiveness was a real eye opener and she was ready to forgive a family member who had wronged her.
As we went through the themes, the men appreciated participating in the PC and said that they had learnt a lot. They came up with names of their friends whom they felt would also benefit by attending Peace Circles. Abel suggested that we include more men in our next PC as he felt the men needed to be good creators of peace just like the women. Roy shared how he felt that men were culprits of disunity and destroyed peace in the home, work place and community by their selfishness. He felt men needed to be trained as peace makers.
One of the participants, Sue felt that the program of Creators of Peace Circle was a worthy one and felt that there should be more facilitators in order to reach more people and create peace.
Most of the participants came out with plans to put their houses in order after going through the CoP. The men were hopeful that the team would continue to invite more men to be creators of peace.
Reported by Adelaide Mhunduru and Angie Katito