Limerick based children’s charity CARI appeals for fresh funding
A LIMERICK based children's charity has launched a new appeal for donations.
The campaign from CARI, Ireland’s child sexual abuse helpline, hopes to cover their annual costs by asking 85 people, groups or businesses to raise €1,000 each to help cover their yearly spend of €85,000.
CARI, who has their headquarters based in Limerick, is an Irish charity that provides child-centred therapy and support services those affected by child sexual abuse.
“The CARI Helpline is the first point of contact and support for anyone with concerns about child sexual abuse or sexualised behaviour,” said Emer O’Neill from CARI, Limerick.
“We take calls from parents, professionals and young people who desperately need to talk to someone - parents struggle to cope when faced with the unimaginable horror that their child is being sexually abused.
“Our Helpline gives them essential support but needs your help to survive and expand.”
Describing some features that will appear in the campaign, Ms O’Neill says that it will be “illustrated with anonymised quotes from helpline calls”, and continued by saying they are ‘heartened’ by the support thus far.
“Before we even launched officially today, we already had about 10 people lined up - we have lots of advice, tips and resources for them, when they sign up.
“We also have a toolkit for each participant and we will be supporting them on our social media channels, too,” she concluded.
CARI also have the support of leading entrepreneur and child sexual abuse survivor, Tony Delaney, who has spoken openly about his experiences on the RTE Late Late Show.
“As a child sexual abuse victim, I understand first-hand the impacts that it can have on a child’s life and into your adult life,” says Mr Delaney.
“We know that children and their loved ones struggle to navigate the effects of the abuse and it often seems like there is nowhere to turn to for guidance or support - I believe CARI’s child sexual abuse helpline will assist the victim and their families voyage this trauma.”
The CARI Helpline number is 0818 924567 and it’s open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.