Cambridge City Amnesty International would like to thank everyone who came to their Stall at strawberry fair on Saturday and supported their campaigns for Justine Bihamba in the DRC, Barbara Mendez in Mexico and the Cambridge Rape Crisis Center.

The Cambridge Rape Crisis Center ( http://www.cambridgerapecrisis.co.uk/) runs a free, independent and confidential helpline for women and girls of any age who have experienced rape or abuse at any time in their lives. Unfortunately, the centre has struggled with a lack of funds for quite some time – having to close for some months in the summer of 2007.

This year, the Cambridge Rape Crisis Center received £683 funding from the Cambridge City Council, out of their £11266 grant application. It can now afford to be open for just 2 hours each week which is not enough to cope with the volume of calls received.

At the stall on Saturday was a visual petition for the Rape Crisis Center- a 3ft paper strawberry plant. People who came to the stall wrote their name on a paper strawberry and pinned it to the plant in support of the Cambridge rape crisis center.

The strawberry plant, with its full branches of strawberries, will be passed onto the local council along with a letter asking for sufficient funding for the CRCC. So thank you once again! All of us on the stall had an excellent strawberry fair and we hope you did too!