Today Friday May 25th Miriam Ahern hosted her annual Summer Lunch in aid of CARI at The Shelbourne Hotel Dublin. CARI provides a professional child therapy and counselling service to children and families who have been affected by child sexual abuse.
Glamorous and stylish ladies dressed in chic summer looks, were out in force to enjoy the wonderful surroundings of The Shelbourne Hotel. Marks & Spencer Ireland were on hand to support again this year hosting a pre-lunch drinks reception along with wine to accompany a delicious four-course gourmet lunch.
The dynamic Alan Hughes was the MC for the afternoon. After lunch guests were entertained by The Runaways. The day came to an end after a fun filled raffle. Guests continued to enjoy the day at House Dublin where the official post lunch cocktails were served.
Guests who attended on the day included Miriam Ahern and Terry Mc Coy, Cecelia Ahern, Georgina Byrne, Karl Broderick, Norah Casey, Claudine Keane and Suzanne Jackson, Also in attendance were Carmel Breheny from M&S, Claire Ronan and Gary Kavanagh to name but a few of the social faces who were enjoying the afternoon.
Mary Flaherty CEO CARI said “The CARI lunch is a flagship fundraising event each year for CARI. The support from attendees at the lunch and from Marquette our Charity of the Year for the Sponsor a Child’s Therapy Campaign has had a big impact. Thanks to increased private support from individuals and trusts we were able to offer more hours of therapy and our accompaniment services grew by 30% in 2017. However, the number of new referrals keep coming so the number of children waiting remains terribly high and the time waiting shockingly long. Despite a concerted campaign our statutory funding has remained static so we need to recruit more support from you our private donors so we are appealing again for you to support our Sponsor a Child’s Therapy Campaign”.
CARI is a voluntary organisation, founded in 1989 to provide therapy and counselling to children and teenagers that have been affected by Child Sexual Abuse. CARI’s focus is to address the long-term needs of children and teens that have experienced sexual abuse. This coupled with the fact that they also treat the non-abusing members of the family and the siblings makes their approach unique.
CARI also provides a Lo-call National Helpline and a National Court Accompaniment Service for child witnesses, along with an accompaniment service for children attending forensic examinations in the immediate aftermath of disclosure in both Galway and Dublin.
With limited government funding to date CARI is entirely dependent upon its fund-raising efforts in order to continue to offer these vital services. It is hoped that in excess of €20,000 will be raised at the lunch today. Thousands of children have recovered their childhoods and more recently we have accompanied hundreds of children attending court.
Money raised from today’s lunch is essential to CARI to maintain each and every one of these important services for children.
