The European Peace and Reconciliation Fund has done more in the past three years to support victims of violence than did the statutory authorities over the entire period of the troubles, a conference on surviving trauma has been told.
Ms Avila Kilmurray, director of the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust (NIVT) said yesterday the peace package fund had helped enable the needs of victims and survivors of violence to be appropriately assessed and met. The fund had helped many of the 70 or so organisations working with victims to operate on a sounder footing.
The response of the European fund was in stark contrast to the lack of statutory supports and funding throughout the past 30 years of conflict, Ms Kilmurray told the Remembrance and Change conference in Templepatrick, Co Antrim.