€880k raised by Manuela Riedo Foundation

The Manuela Riedo Foundation Ireland – founded in memory of the Swiss student so brutally murdered in Galway in 2007 – has announced that the total funding raised in Manuela’s name has reached €880,000 over a ten-year period.

Funding has been used to fund a number of deserving projects, services and counseling which provide support to the victims and survivors of sexual assault and rape in Ireland.

The foundations final large fundraising campaign was held in 2017 raising over €75,000. Agencies who have benefitted from 2017 funding include the Mayo Rape Crisis Centre (MRCC), Rape Crisis North East, Children at Risk in Ireland (CARI) and the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (SATU) at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin.

A significant portion of the funding was also directed toward the reduction of the long-term waiting list for counselling at Galway Rape Crisis Centre.

The Manuela Programme, a sexual violence prevention and consent programme targeted at 15 to 17 year olds, was initiated and funded by the MRFI in October 2015.

The programme, aimed at transition year students, emerged from a collaborative project between the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, 16 national Rape Crisis Centres and MRFI.

It brought together the vast knowledge, learning and skills of Rape Crisis’ education personnel. It was facilitated, authored and devised by Dr. Sue Redmond, a social research expert in this area.

The Manuela Programme received one of the largest grants from a European funding tranche directed at initiatives around sexual violence and consent.  TUSLA, the Child and Family agency were instrumental in getting this important funding from Brussels.