Following on from the funding shortfall at Wellington Rape Crisis, now it’s Auckland’s turn.
The HELP Foundation take 12,000 calls a year, and despite government promises to assist them … yep, they’re in trouble. More info and account details to make a donation in this article - please note at this point the donation account is only open until 26 October.
On the cynical side of things, does anyone really think it’s coincidental that these two crises for organisations providing badly-needed services, in an area Good Decent People don’t like to talk about at the dinner table, have occurred so close together? Take it away, NRT:
There’s an obvious pattern that emerges from these two incidents: the government doesn’t care about rape victims. These services cost a pittance, and yet there is no money for them. Why? Because unlike tax cuts, inflated CEO salaries, there’s no obvious benefit to rich white men like themselves.
Funding services for sexual assault victims also doesn’t fit the smile-and-wave idiom, nor provide a great opportunity to rark up people who think of themselves as “middle-class” about Not Getting Their Fair Share.
Can you imagine if our government – and that’s any government, not just the current one – treated sexual assault like benefit fraud?
Important post. It’d be good to see this cross-posted at The Standard.
Thanks weka, I’ll stick it up over there.