Media Release for immediate release
9 April 2013 for annual appeal day on 12 April 2013
Wellington Rape Crisis again relies on community generosity to stay open
Wellington Rape Crisis hits the streets once again this Friday 12 April for their Annual Street Appeal, asking the community for donations in order to keep their services running. Wellington Rape Crisis Agency Manager, Natalie Gousmett says “The appeal is more important than ever this year; unless the funding environment changes we will need to make some hard decisions in 2014. We provide extremely effective and efficient services that benefit the whole community. It would be a tragedy if that service were no longer available to people in the Wellington region.”

“We really rely on our annual appeal in order to continue providing free social work and counselling to survivors of rape and sexual abuse and their support people,” says Gousmett. “The NZ Police crime statistics released last week show us that there’s been a 1.3% increase in sexual assault offences nationally, and a 2.4% increase in Wellington[1], so we know how important it is that these services are available and accessible for every person affected by rape and sexual abuse.”

Annual Appeal Coordinator, Tabby Besley says “Last year Wellingtonians were extremely generous in our annual appeal. We already have more volunteers than we’ve ever had before and we really hope this support for our work will come through in donations.”

With the annual appeal vital to ensuring their sexual violence support services continue, Wellington Rape Crisis urges you to support them this year by donating on Friday 12 April or running your own fundraiser, such as a collection at your workplace or school.

Ends

Note to editors
An estimated 1 in 4 women and 1 in 20 men in New Zealand will be victims of a sexual assault at some point in their lives.[2]
In 2010-2011 WRC had 543 client contacts and in 2011-2012 WRC had 995 client contacts. In the same periods ongoing clients increased from 140 to 179.[3]

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