“This is truly a leading organization that supports victims of rape and sexual assault because they want treatment and justice,” he said. “Their significant work means women no longer need to suffer in silence and I am so grateful to all of Mirabelle’s wonderful staff and volunteers.”
Clarence House said the Duchess will work with Nigerian and British Nigerian women to find ways to help the Mirabell Center in the coming months.
The center’s founder, Etoro Eze-Anaba, told CNN Tuesday that the Mirabell Center provides free medical and psychosocial support services to survivors of sexual violence and has helped more than 6,000 people since it began eight years ago. . .
She said the youngest surviving woman they helped was a 3-month-old baby and the eldest an 80-year-old woman.
Eze-Anaba said that having the Duchess as a mentor has, among other things, enabled the organization to promote work for survivors of sexual violence, who are often afraid to speak up.
“This will increase awareness of the rape issue in the center and in Nigeria. When we started in 2013, we were seeing 20 to 30 clients a month. Now we are at least 70 per month, sometimes 100 More customers see. It means more people have the confidence to speak up,” she said.
The Duchess of Cornwall became a patron of UK domestic abuse charity SafeLives last year.
“Sexual violence in Nigeria is rampant, but shrouded in secrecy because of the stigma attached to it,” Eze-Anaba said.
Last month, Lagos State Domestic and The Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) said At least 1,617 cases of sexual harassment were registered in the state between January and June this year.
“The current COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the endemic nature of sexual violence. We have seen a large number of children and women coming forward to report cases of sexual assault and rape,” said Eze-Anaba.
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