Union for the Development of Apostolic Churches in Zimbabwe and Africa (UDACIZA) has stepped up efforts to eradicate child abuse, early marriages and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in communities through their Apostolic Strategic Action Plan which has been designed to foster community engagement and to equip apostolic leaders with leadership skills, UDACIZA General Secretary Dr. Reverend Innocent Chitanda has revealed during the 2025 Provincial Extraordinary meeting which was recently held in Manicaland.
“Our Strategic Action Plan consists of four thematic areas: health, child protection, women and youth empowerment and leadership development.
“On child protection, as UDACIZA, we have developed programs to protect the girl child. We know that child marriages have been rampant among the white garment people, so we have so far introduced many initiatives that address gender-based violence. At the moment, we have a program running in Bikita which speaks about how we can support each other as a community to eradicate child marriages,” he said.
He further spoke about their stance to engage partners that can aid by equipping their members with basic technical skills as a way of achieving an empowered community and addressing gender-based violence issues.
“Women and youth empowerment as one of the areas that is addressed in our Strategic Action Plan, as the office we are working very hard to look for partners who can take advantage of the technical skills that our members have, we want our members to be equipped with better skills so that they can have improved standards of living.
“Also, we have several partners that we are engaging so that we can train our members about good leadership. This is done through the thematic area of leadership development because we strongly understand that when one has become a leader, he or she is capable of leading people, hence the need for proper training,” he added.
Some of the parents in Buhera South who preferred to be identified as Mai Carol expressed hope towards the strategies that UDACIZA has started to implement, saying that “Surely reported cases of child abuse in the Apostolic Sect have been worrisome. As a parent, when I hear about this kind of action happening in our society, I begin to gain peace. We have girl children who deserve to be protected everywhere.
“I strongly believe that these measures will end child marriages in our societies, particularly in the Apostolic Sect,” she said.
In his address, Reverend Chitanda revealed that their consortium remains committed to eradicating child abuse in the country, and as a result, they have so far introduced several programs that are currently running in some parts of the country that are aimed at raising awareness about child protection and improving community inclusion and engagement.
UDACIZA is a non-profit, faith-based organisation that empowers Apostolic and Zionist churches and their members to participate in religious, socio-economic, and national development processes. UDACIZA also addresses development issues of common concern among these churches, particularly in areas like child protection.
