After nearly two years of operations, the Women?s Support Centre Project has been described as a success story in the making. This is the assessment of the Director of Gender Relations in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Gender Relations Lera Pascal.

Pascal indicated that a formal evaluation of the Centre was recently conducted by a consultant over the period May 5th to 16th, resulting in a commendable report on the facility.

"The evaluation exercise looked at various aspects of the Centre's operations- key among which were security, staffing, governance, fund raising and other such matters. Generally the report which she gave at the end of the exercise was very encouraging to us since we seem to be doing most things correctly,"she explained.

According to Pascal, the evaluation exercise was funded by Health Canada and was conducted by Marlene Bertrand, head of the Human Services Department of Manitoba, Canada, who has been closely affiliated to the Centre from its inception.

Meanwhile, says Pascal, the Centre continues to focus on its mandate to provide a safe and secure environment - on a short term basis - for women who are fleeing from domestic violence situations at home.