With about a year to go before the withdrawal of funding for the operation of the Mirabel Centre, the organisation is seeking financial support from public and private organisations, concerned stakeholders, philanthropists among others, to keep the centre running.
This was disclosed by the managing partner, Itoro Eze-Anaba, Partnership for Justice, which is an international organisation that is providing funding support for the Mirabel Centre. She spoke at the one-day partners meeting on the Mirabel Centre and Sexual Violence in Lagos State organised by Partnership for Justice with support from Justice for All (J4A). CONTINUE ..
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The Mirabel Centre which is located inside the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, is a safe, friendly and conducive place, where one can get free help after going through the trauma of rape or sexual assault. According to Eze-Anaba, the call, seeking continued funding for the centre became necessary because the funding from Partnership for Justice in collaboration with Justice for All (J4A), will expire after two years.
Hence, this funding of the Mirabel Centre will be withdrawn at the end of 2015. She said getting more funding that would keep the centre running when Justice for All withdraws, is a big challenge.
However, Eze-Anaba said thereafter, the centre needs high level of cash inflow for us to sustain that place. Presently, Mirabel Centre is operating from an office space in LASUTH provided by the Lagos State Government.
Although, she expressed appreciation to the government over the gesture, she noted that the given space is too small. We are calling on the government to give us a bigger space so that we can render more effective services for people that are in need, she said.
On the importance of sustaining this centre, she said the fact that there are no support services that are readily available for the rape survivors and victims of sexual violence is contributing largely to high incidence of rape, adding that this development makes affected persons to keep quiet. Consequently, by keeping quiet, she reasoned that perpetrators go on to the next person and continue to rape and assault other women.
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