MALAWI: Marriage Encounter Fights Gender Based Violence
MALAWI: Marriage Encounter Fights Gender Based Violence
Sam Kalimba
The Marriage Encounter (ME), an association of married Christians in the Catholic Church, says it is easier to fight gender-based violence using the Church structures.
Clement and Thokozani Bisai who are the Chair-couple for Marriage Encounter Central Region Chapter spoke at a function that took place at Mlale Parish, in the Archdiocese of Lilongwe, on 27th June 2021 where Catholic families from the parish requested for an orientation meeting.
“Our goal is to ensure that all families live in peace and harmony with each other. Our movement seeks to help deepen love in marriages then if love is so deep, how would one member deprive the other of the same by indulging in GBV? The movement equips its members with effective communication tools to help improve relationships between spouses,” said the pair leaders adding, “We have zero cases of gender-based violence in our member families and we doubt if any of them can even think of committing suicide because there are no chances. We preach, live and eat love.”
The Bisais also said that they were hopeful that if more families joined the Marriage Encounter, not only will the Church manifest her power of preaching love but also communities surrounding the parishes would benefit from good examples of renewed families.
Some families from the Catholic Parish of Mlale in Mitundu area requested Marriage Encounter groups of Mtima Woyera and Msamba parishes to lead an outreach activity aimed at helping them understand what the movement is all about and what it does.
According to the Bisais, couples willing to join ME are supposed to attend a 3-day retreat that is called Original Weekend to start their journey. Such retreats are held once or twice a year at a designated retreat centre.
“Our immediate retreat for the central region is scheduled for three days from 30 July to 1 August in Lilongwe,” said Mr. Bisai.
More than 15 couples at Mlale Parish expressed interest to join the Marriage Encounter making it the 15th parish in the central region where Marriage Encounter exists.
The Catholic Church in Malawi has 3 specialized groups of family movements namely, the Christian Family Movement (CFM), Couples for Christ (CfC) and the Marriage Encounter.
