George chimwayange
MASVINGO –
The Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations (ZHOCD) last week held a dialogue
session at Assemblies of God in Hillside to discuss how
to improve and strengthen a good relationship with organizations for the sake
of development.
The
meber organisations that organised the event are Catholic Commission for Justice
and Peace (CCJP), Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), Evangelical Fellowship of
Zimbabwe (EFZ), Union for Development of Apostolic and Zionist Churches in
Zimbabwe (UDACIZA) and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Speaking
at the event, Masvingo Assistant District Development Coordinator (DDC) Kenneth
Madziva appreciated the good work that churches were doing to partner
government for development.
He
credited the organisation for doing great works in communities including the
construction of a water pipe at Morgenster Hospital which has improved the
daily life of the community.
“We
can’t work alone without the support of churches as our duty is to promote
development through citizen participation,” said Madziva.
Representing
the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development was John
Masvinhu who said women needed to take advantage of opportunities created by
these stakeholders to develop themselves.
“Women
should promote development through initiating their own projects that they want
to work on and the ministry will provide some training and funding,” said
Masvinhu.
Yemurai
Dzvairo, who represented Masvingo Rural District Council, said the community
was the main key for development to happen.
She
said local authorities derived their mandate from the need to serve communities
and all facilities built should benefit their communities.
“We
are trying our best to develop and improve service delivery by building
schools. We recently built Chirichoga Primary School and some of our clinics
have solar-powered boreholes while refuse management has been improved at many
business centres,” said Dzvairo.
Many
participants also said churches ought to promote community sports so as to
encourage people to stay physically fit and ultimately reduce the health bill
of community members.
