The Mirabel Centre, a J4A supported initiative, celebrated its second year anniversary on the 21st of July 2015 with a conference on Rape and Sexual Violence. The event was aimed at creating awareness about rape and its negative impact on survivors. In attendance were over 200 representatives from justice institutions, the police, the health sector, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, social welfare organizations, civil society organizations, private organizations and the media.
The Governor of Lagos State, who was represented by the Solicitor General, Mr Lawal Pedro said, “We are proud to say that the Mirabel is part of the Lagos State Domestic Violence Response Team and its work is commendable”.
The keynote speaker Prof Chidi Odinkalu, National Human Rights Commission, in his address stressed the fact that the society is raping their children and the men who rape these girls are not held accountable. He said, “We owe the Mirabel Center a lot of thanks”
On the lessons learned in the last two years, Managing Partner of the Mirabel Centre, Itoro Eze-Anaba, said for every one person that comes out to report a rape case there is a hundred that have refused to come out. She made it known that persons with disabilities are also vulnerable to rape and are not left out of the centre’s intervention. She added that men need to do more in the fight against rape.
At the end of the event the all men panel made commitments that they ARE MAN ENOUGH TO SAY NO TO RAPE.
The centre has dealt with over 740 cases including rape, defilement and sexual assault since its inception in July 2013 and 76% of the cases involve children under the age of 17 years.