Guardian

•Trains health workers, counsellors

RESPITE may have come the way of rape victims and all forms of sexual assaults in Nigeria, as a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) is set to take off at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), offering free medical and legal services.

The centre, first of its kind in Nigeria, is being set up by the Partnership for Justice supported by Justice for All Programme, Department of International Development (DFID) in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Health.

Main objective of the centre is to provide comprehensive and quality services to survivors of sexual violence in a compassionate and caring manner free of charge.

Already, 30 medical doctors and nurses drawn from various government-owned health institutions in the state are undergoing a two-week training workshop being facilitated by a Forensic Expert, Dr Sarah Redvers, from St. Mary’s Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Manchester, United Kingdom (UK).

Executive Director/ Managing Partner, Partnership for Justice, Itoro Eze-Anaba, told reporters at the opening of the training programme that the centre would provide free medical, psychosocial and follow-up support services to all women and children that are victims of rape and sexual assault.

According to her, the centre will provide pregnancy tests, initial medical services like possible HIV tests, which will be done with the consent of the victim and all information to be kept confidential and private.

Eze-Anaba regretted that generally, survivors of sexual violence find it difficult to report cases due to their inability to pay for treatments, lack of awareness and fear of victimisation, especially when the perpetrator of the act is a family member.