Bible Study being used to discuss gender violence

Friday, December 11th, 2015

Interactive Bible studies in Fiji are helping to break the silence over gender violence.

The House of Sarah, part of the Anglican Diocese of Polynesia, is running workshops looking at how scripture can help end violence against women.

House of Sarah’s gender specialist, Tupou Vere, says they’ve found the workshops a useful way to discuss difficult issues.

“We’ve found it’s been extremely, extremely helpful in discussing violence against women because it involves everyone that comes to the Bible study.”

She says the workshop engages youth, different age-groups, men and women, different ethnic groups.

All have a say in how they engage and how they interact with the scriptures.

Vere says the programme “gave us an opportunity to isolate or to define what is violence in a conversation, in a safe space, in a church, in a mixed audience, to actually talk about what is violence against women.”

The House of Sarah also organises workshops for women to teach them basic knowledge and skills around topics such as: gender awareness, gender based and domestic violence, child abuse, rape, and sexual harassment. These women can then help more people in their community when these issues arise.

The workshops also teach UN Conventions on discrimination against women and children’s rights.

In 2011 Awareness raising training workshops were held for AAW members in Archdeaconries and Episcopal units.

Training in gender issues for members of the men’s fellowships and young people’s groups in the Diocese was carried out with the focus of stopping violence in the family.

The House of Sarah was recently awarded a $30,000 grant from the United Nations to assist in the continuation of the courses throughout Fiji.

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