The centre acknowledges the courage it takes to make that first phone call to the Centre or to call in to the Centre for the first time. Callers are young and old, women and men, of different nationalities and ethnicities.

All however, have been effected by sexual violence at different stages of their lives. The door of Sexual Violence Centre is open to all, irrespective of the nature of the sexual violence they experienced or when it occurred.

Over 65% of the centre's clients are victims of sexual abuse, while 35% have been raped or assaulted as adults. Furthermore, 15% of clients are male.

"What really kept me going through the hard times when we first started out was when I witnessed the courage of people who came to the centre and told their story. It was really admirable", says Mary. Mary claims that more funding for the centre is definitely necessary if it is to develop it's educational work, as well as introduce weekend services at the centre.

The Sexual Violence Centre also offers services in Bantry and Mallow once a week. These services developed five year ago in order to cater to the Cork county region and again Mary says that more funding is needed to extend the level of service provision in those areas.

The Centre's phoneline is a service which is of huge importance to the Sexual Violence Centre's clients because of the privacy aspect. The phoneline is in operation five days a week and in any year they receive two to three thousand calls from victims, survivor's friends and families as well as doctors, teachers etc.

At present, the centre is currently running a 'Stop Sex Trafficking' campaign in order to raise awareness about sex trafficking in Ireland.

The centre has had ongoing meetings in the last year with local T.D's and political representatives in order to discuss introducing more measures for the protection of victims of sex trafficking.

Mary hopes to continue campaigning about sexual violence in Ireland in the future and also, hopes to have a significant impact on any new policy and legislation regarding sexual violence in Ireland.

www.sexualviolence.ie - Freefone: 1800 496 496