Faith leaders crucial to ending child marriages
ZANZIBAR: MINISTER for Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Anna Paul has urged religious leaders to adopt participatory approaches in implementing the national training programme for faith leaders.
She made the remarks over the weekend while officiating at the closing ceremony of the Religious Leaders’ and Development Stakeholders’ Forum.
The minister said the guidelines were developed to empower religious leaders to champion positive cultural change, challenge harmful and oppressive traditions and help eliminate child marriages within communities.
She further called on religious leaders and development stakeholders to collaborate in conducting proper assessments to produce accurate reports for the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in accordance with international requirements.
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Ms Patricia Mwaikenda from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) Headquarters in Arusha said the forum provided a valuable opportunity to gather expert input on the new guidelines.
She urged communities to work closely with relevant institutions to ensure the government’s efforts to combat violence and abuse are fully realised.
The guidelines were developed through the participation of eight religious education institutions, led by Makumira University, the Islamic University of Morogoro, and the Mazizini Islamic College.
