The manager of Lifeline Inishowen has warned that failure to provide funding for the centre in Carndonagh will cause further abuse and isolation for victims in north Donegal.
The centre, which helped over 46 women last year with domestic violence cases, has not been sanctioned government funding since 2011 despite the efforts of the centre over the last four years.
Mary Doherty, manager of the centre, said she was ‘fearful’ the facility would have to shut its doors.
“Every year we are fearful, you get to a stage where you get burnt out because we have had to fundraise every year to keep the centre opened,” she said.
“We are working with a lot of families and it is such an important service to be available in the area.”
Officials from the government insist the Donegal Women’s Centre in Letterkenny is suitable to cover the entire county, leaving those in Inishowen as far as 65km from the centre.
“They keep telling us that we are not going to get the funding we want, that Letterkenny is fit to cover all of Donegal,” Doherty continued.
“They told us that they are centralising the centre, but how can they centralise something so urgent?
“It’s not like these women can make an appointment, they need the service urgently and at the time that they require it.
“I question whether the government understand the issue with domestic violence because why else would they want to centralise it?
“People are not going to be able to make it to Letterkenny,” she added.
“Which means these women are going to have to stay in this abusive relationship that they are in.
“That is the reality of the situation.”
The Inishowen group are set to hand the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, a funding petition later this month – with Doherty now urging the government to rethink their policy on the issue going forward.
“Do they not realise the benefits that our centre has for peoples’ mental health and well-being on the peninsula?
“A lot of people that come through our doors are on anti-depressants or abusing alcohol and a lot of them develop a massive change and start to believe in themselves again in the short-spell we provide the help that they need.
“And that is the ripple effect on them and their families.
“Rural areas are clearly not their priority and that is sending the wrong message to these families.
“Inishowen has a population bigger than Leitrim, and by that estimation, we are a county in our own right.
“They are further isolating these families from being able to change their lives and that is causing further abuse.
“We are a lifeline to them, the government need to understand that.”
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