Bay Area Women Against Rape to Hold Fundraiser

A fundraiser will be held in Newark on April 18 to raise money to send young female rape victims to camp this summer through the organization Bay Area Women Against Rape.

The April 18 event will run from 6 to 10 p.m. and will be at Casa De Salud, 36925 Sycamore St., Newark. Tickets are $40 and includes appetizers, dinner and a Spanish drag queen show.

The goal is to raise $1,000 to fully fund the trip for the girls.

BAWAR volunteer Delores Chavez, owner of Newark's  and Casa De Salud, is organizing the fundraiser.

“The reason why I do it is because I believe every citizen should do something to help the community, and this is how I like to help my community,” Chavez said. “There are a lot of Hispanic people that go through this, and there are not enough of us to help them, so that is why I do it.”

The Oakland-based organization, Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), sends young victims to camp in Yosemite every summer.

Founded in 1971, BAWAR is the nation’s first rape crisis center. The organization was started to provide education, support and services for rape and sexual assault victims.

“There was a rape at Berkeley High School, and as a result of that rape, people realized that there were no services for the victims of sexual assault crimes,” said Pat Mims, a BAWAR employee.

This is just one of many fundraisers the nonprofit organization holds each year, which is fully funded by grants and public donations.

“Some of the services we provide are advocacy, court accompaniment, sexual assault response teams to hospitals, in-detention girls focus group, out-of-detention girls Saturday program, educational outreach and we provide state certification training to become sexual assault counselors,” Mims said.

The fundraiser begins with appetizers at 6 p.m. Dinner begins at 7:30 p.m. with the show beginning at 8:30 p.m. Raffle tickets will also be sold at the event.

“All the help that [the public] can give us will always be appreciated,” Vargas said. “This will raise funds to take victims to a summer camp, have some fun and bring healing towards their victimization.”

For additional information, or to order tickets to the event, contact Delores Chavez at 510-672-6194.