Africa-Press – Botswana. Men have been called to treat women and girls with love and respect in an effort to end gender-based violence (GBV). This was said by Pastor Hitler Kanyetu of St John Church when giving a motivational talk during a mass prayer organised by Sehithwa police recently.
“It is our moral obligation as men to promote and protect the rights of women and children and we can only achieve that if we show them respect, love, care and support,” he said.
Men, as head of families, he said, must take a leading role, sharing in the responsibility and engage actively rather than resort to violence to solve domestic disputes. Pastor Kanyetu said ending GBV was the responsibility of the whole community.
Therefore, he said it was important that both men and boys were active participants and promoters of change to get rid of the current status quo.
He said it was time for real men to coach the next generation of men on how to become more responsible and not cause harm to women and girls, noting that they should ensure that women and girls lived freely without fear of rape, murder, physical harm or any form of abuse.
While he appreciated that there were numerous interventions by government and civil society to address the scourge, he expressed concern that some of their efforts were failing as the problem was persisting, adding that it was disturbing as some men bragged about something horrible they were doing.
He further said economic deprivation and dependency were some of the reasons fuelling GBV and urged women to fend for themselves and venture into income-generating activities.
Some men, he said, took advantage of women’s economic situations to abuse them.
Kgosi Kajuu Mbakareratjike urged Christians to participate in community activities in their respective areas, saying they should join structures and committees so that they could provide spiritual guidance.
He cited committees such as road safety, crime prevention, stock theft and children protection, among others, saying their spiritual guidance would make a difference.
He also appealed to traditional leaders to lead by example in the fight against societal ills noting that they had a duty to ensure that community’s safety was achieved in their areas to ensure peace and stability.
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