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.