Survivor sets up support network for rape victims
A RAPE survivor is launching her own nationwide support network for victims who the State cannot support in the wake of a string of high-profile sex scandals.
Mother-of-six Shaneda Daly’s drive to set up a new support network comes as the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre revealed that the demand for its helpline has shot up since September when broadcaster George Hook made controversial radio remarks about rape victims.
Ms Daly, who was raped as a child by her convicted ex-prison officer father Harry Daly, is coordinating support group meetings nationwide, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.
This allows victims to meet up, share their experiences and exchange phone numbers because she feels there is ‘no proper support system in Ireland for abuse victims’.
Her organisation, Survivors Side By Side, started up online two years ago and already has almost 1,500 members.
Noeline Blackwell, chief executive of the Dublin Rape Crisis Initiative: Shaneda Daly Centre, which operates the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland helpline, told the Mail that demand for the centre’s helpline and urgent faceto-face counselling from victims who’d kept their past suffering a secret for many years, has shot up in the wake of Hook’s controversial remarks about rape victims on his radio show in September.
Her organisation simply cannot accommodate the big demand at present and needs more State funding, she explained.
Ever since broadcaster Hook suggested that blame could attach Service: Noeline Blackwell to rape victims who ‘put themselves in danger’ on his Newstalk radio show on September 8, calls to the Rape Crisis Network of Ireland helpline have shot up by some 300 extra calls a month, Ms Blackwell told the Mail.
The Hook remarks were a ‘tipping point’ for Irish victims coming forward, and that high level of demand in Ireland was merely sustained when the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke in October and has remained at that same level since then, Ms Blackwell explained.
Demand for the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre’s low-cost or free counselling services has increased by 50% in the past three months – with anyone placed on its waiting list now having to wait between six and eight months to be seen.
Calling on the Government to urgently provide more funding to cater for increased demand, Ms Blackwell said: ‘It’s a duty of the State to help us provide the service. People who need our services aren’t getting them. We need additional resources.’
Meanwhile, Ms Daly began helping victims two years ago when she set up Survivors Side by Side as a Facebook support group for victims of abuse.
It has enabled her to connect with other victims of childhood abuse around the country who are now setting up support groups in their local areas.
Groups are already meeting in Dublin, Limerick, Kilkenny and Shannon, while the operation is currently looking to expand to Cork, Kerry and Tipperary and ultimately, the whole country.
The initiative includes a ‘buddy system’ allowing members to exchange phone numbers ‘so that when they are having a bad day or just need a chat, you can text someone on your buddy list’, said Ms Daly, who lives in Shannon, Co. Clare, with her family.
She told the Mail: ‘Not all of us want to attend therapy. Most of us just want to talk to someone else who has been through the same ordeal.
‘The rape crisis centres are amazing, but there is a waiting list. We are in the process of setting up support groups throughout the country. We truly care about others being alone.’
Shaneda Daly, now in her early 40s, waived her right to anonymity in September 2011 after her father was jailed for 15 years.
He had raped and abused her repeatedly between 1982 and 1992 in what she described as their ‘house of doom’.
A spokeswoman for Tusla said the State agency is ‘currently engaging with funded agencies providing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence services as part of an annual process to determine funding arrangements for 2018.’
She said funding for such support services was increased by €1.5million this year to €22.1million.
The Rape Crisis Network of Ireland 24/7 helpline number is 1800 77 88 88
‘We need additional resources’