http://https://youtu.be/uhFDhtqqR8A

My name is Ntombizodwa Revesai I am 57 years old. I’m the Midlands Provincial Spokesperson for Apostolic Women Empowerment Trust (AWET). I have a Degree in English and Communications studies and currently studying towards a degree in Development studies with the Women’s University. I intend to go further than that with my studies.

I’m a qualified Teacher, I worked for MASO for years. I am a member of an apostolic sect. I want to be a role model for apostolic women and girls.

Apostolic Women Empowerment Trust (AWET) is an Inter-Faith based, non-governmental organization that is mandated to advance the rights of Adolescents and women issues and mainstreaming of gender in Apostolic Church activities. AWET is fully cognisant of the fact that Apostolic Churches have different beliefs, norms, values and perceptions on key social issues such as Early/Child Marriage, Education, Human Immune Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), Maternal New-born Child Health (MNCH), Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (ASRHR). AWET is therefore committed to tackling the social-cultural challenges/barriers confronting apostolic women in communities by mobilizing women of faith to deal with the challenges of their day to day lives. To empower women in Apostolic Churches, protect their rights and create a future filled with hope.

Our organisation came into being in 2016, after a survey was carried out that showed health seeking behaviour among apostolic sects. We realised there was a gap in terms of accessing health services from apostolic sects. We also wanted to deal with other health related issues like sexual and reproductive health in adolescents, HIV and AIDS.

Being a member of the apostolic sect I felt there was a deficit in the programming that I was doing, it was generalised. I decided to follow my passion and join an organisation that caters specifically for apostolic members. Apostolic sects are a closed community and information has been roving in other target groups but it has not been filtering to apostolic members. I saw that I can permeate very easily since I am one of them. They can relate to me better than someone who is not one of us.

Since the advent of Covid 19, we have been focusing on Covid 19 response where we have been inculcating Covid 19 behaviour among the apostolic sects. We have carried out outreaches to teach our members on the importance of getting vaccinated. Quite a number of us got the Covid 19 vaccine.

Just recently we went into partnership with UNKI Mine to promote the uptake of services in the health sector. The health seeking behaviour amongst the apostolic is quite slow so we want to encourage that behaviour. We appreciate that there are various perspectives amongst apostolic sects. I think we have made strides in trying to consientise our community about the availability of western medicine. We encourage them to seek medical attention.

You have to have a lot of tactics to be able to reach out to them because some are very resistant to some of these interventions. There is always a war between health facilities and apostolic sects or shrines. We make them aware that there is nothing wrong in seeking for medical assistance.

As an organisation we have a vision of empowering the apostolic woman into protecting their rights against any social ills. We are also trying to deal with gender based violence and age mixing. There is always a challenge of age mixing as a facilitator of HIV and AIDS transmission. We are saying as apostolic women, no to the pledging of children. In order for people to be in relationships they should be more or less the same age groups and there is need for mutual understanding. We don’t understand a situation where a 72 year old marries a 15 year old.

We are promoting that out girls are empowered through education. Apostolic members are not spared from HIV and AIDS. We are encouraging them to take their drugs very religiously. Every apostolic woman and girl should have ambitions and visions so that they establish themselves. Every girl and woman should have a vision, set their standards and go beyond basic needs to self-actualisation, we can manage to do that. Women can do it. Our National Director Tendai Gudu is an apostolic woman, I’m female heading the Midlands region. We just don’t talk empowerment of women but we are walking the talk. We are proof that age doesn’t mean anything, let every woman pursue her vision and go even beyond that.