State must not cut lifeline for the most vulnerable in society

A victim of childhood sexual abuse was saved by the assistance she received from the Rape Crisis Centre. Attempts to cut funding for these centres will cost lives and silence victims, says ‘Rosie’ 

I WAS a client of a Rape Crisis Centre many, many years ago as a result of chronic childhood sexual abuse. The abuse was within the family circle. It was also outside the family, a priest in the community, and was suffered later again, as a young adult woman.

There was no aspect or part of my adult life that was left unaffected by that experience. It deeply affected the lives of my late partner and our adult children. It rendered me emotionally and physically paralysed for a long, long time. The beginning of recovery was the moment I made a decision for myself, while under psychiatric care, to attend a counsellor.