Lack of fund threatens existence of sexual assault centre

The founder of Mirabel Centre, the first Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in Nigeria, Mrs. Itoro Eze-Anaba, has disclosed that a lack of funds is a threat to the organisation’s continued existence.

Eze-Anaba, who is also the managing partner of Partnership for Justice spoke at the launch of Mirabel Centre mobile application. She said international donors withdrew their support in April this year and this had led to the lack of funds to run the centre.

She added: “The centre may likely be shut down at the end of this month if there is no financial support. It is better to close down than to charge the clients, which is contrary to our mandate of providing free medical and legal counsel to survivors of sexual assault.

“Unfortunately, the paucity of funds is coming when the centre is getting patronage of between 89 and 100 clients monthly, against the 24-25 recorded at the beginning of the centre in 2013.”

The founder disclosed that Mirabel Centre has attended to over 1,812 people since its establishment, a majority of them being minors. About N2.5 million and N3 million, according to her has been spent as running cost.

She appealed to the Lagos State government to fulfill its pledge to the centre to allow it continue its operations.

The designer of the mobile application, Mr. Stephen Adegbite of TEKANYU Solutions Limited, said the app would allow people share different experiences on sexual assault.