Irish Government to fund rape crisis centres in Sierra Leone

THE Government is to fund the only network of rape crisis centres in Sierra Leone.

The Rainbow Project is at the heart of efforts to combat sexual abuse of women and children in the west African country, which is slowly recovering from a devastating 11-year civil war.

Most of the clients at its centres in Freetown, Kenema and Kono are 11 to 14-year-olds who have been raped by family members or, in some cases, by men who believe it will cure them of AIDS.

Assistant programme manager Florence Sandi said: “Our youngest client was a three-month-old baby. She was raped. She died last year because of the injuries she sustained.”

She said most of the children who are brought to the centre were initially too traumatised to describe what happened to them.

“We give them these teddies to play with so we can get information,” she said.

Irish Aid, the development wing of the Irish Government, has just announced plans to provide the Rainbow Project with €300,000 in funding over the next two years.

Irish Aid country representative Grainne O’Neill said: “It’s good because it comes from them. It’s Sierra Leoneans trying to deal with Sierra Leonean problems.”

The Rainbow Project’s main office in Freetown is discreetly located at the side of the Princess Christian maternity hospital, which was built by Sierra Leone’s former colonial ruler Britain.

The charts on the wall show 1,770 cases have been dealt with since the centres were set up three years ago with assistance from the British Government.

Ms Sandi said recent cases included a 40-year-old woman who was gang-raped by thieves – two were caught and convicted – and a 13-year-old prostitute who contracted AIDS during a rape.

“She died last year. She came from Kono to work in Freetown,” she said. The centres are a crucial addition to Sierra Leone’s chaotic and grossly under-equipped health services. It has the highest rate of child mortality in the world, with 28% of children dying before they reach the age of five.

Ms Sandi said it had been difficult to get backing for the rape crisis centres from the paramount chiefs, the local leaders who wield enormous power in Sierra Leone.

“Opening a centre in Kono was a big challenge because the paramount chiefs were the perpetrators. They used to rape children who were given to them by parents (as future brides). But at the end, they were the ones reporting cases to the centre.”

The centres are still struggling to create a deterrent effect, with only 40 successful prosecutions out of 1,770 cases so far.

Ms Sandi said this was due to the reluctance of female victims to go to court, delays in the legal system and the power of those committing the crimes.