RainLily’s figures show significant rise of new sexual violence cases
RainLily, Hong Kong's first sexual violence crisis centre has published the annual figures on its sexual violence support sexual violence on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 25 November, to promote awareness of the trend and current situation of sexual violence in Hong Kong.
From April 2020 to March 2021, 2,665 request-for-assistance were received by RainLily Sexual Violence Helpline and the newly launched SafeChat Online Support, showing an increase by 24% over last year’s numbers (2,155 request-for-assistance). Among the cases, 430 cases required in-depth follow-up, an increase of nearly 30% over the corresponding period last year (336 cases).
‘Over the past year, the increased homestay time has aggravated emotional and family problems faced by some victim-survivors of sexual violence, which increased their needs for emotional support. RainLily therefore expanded its SafeChat online support service in August last year to those in need,’ said Linda S.Y. Wong, Executive Director of RainLily. ‘RainLily continued to provide its core services amid the still on-going pandemic to victim-survivors of sexual violence that are in critical need.’ The figures on the new SafeChat service show help-seekers opting for the online support service are relatively younger, with 84% in the age range of 14 to 29 years old (84%).
The difference in online support and traditional counselling service has prompted counsellors to adapt to text-based models in walking alongside victim-survivors. ‘Sometimes, the help-seekers do not mention their name or gender throughout the entire online conversation. I get to know the help-seeker’s feelings as well as their stories without knowing anything about their personal identity. And this is probably why they choose to contact us online. It is the distance created by the internet that provides the help-seekers a sense of security,’ said Anna, Counsellor of RainLily. ‘Therefore, I always choose every word, emoticon, and even punctuation carefully to let them feel that they are being listened to and their sharing being valued. When the help-seeker feels safe enough to call our helpline or even meet us in person, I always feel deeply touched. I am grateful for their trust in us, and gave us an opportunity to listen to their voices and see their expressions face to face. I value how this trust and confidence is built upon the tapping of each key and space on the keyboard through the internet connection.’
RainLily has noticed that in some sexual violence cases that sparked discussion and received broad coverage in recent years, comments and questions that lack comprehensive understanding of sexual consent remains common. Not only would these comments cause further retraumatisation to the victim-survivors, they would also weaken the likelihood of other sexual violence survivors in the communities to seek help. Trusts and supports can empower those experienced sexual violence in their journey to heal from trauma and voicing out. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, RainLily calls on the public to establish a friendly environment that support victim-survivors.
