"We want to give people back their personal power after they have experienced the unthinkable."
For Mullingar woman and rape survivor Hazel Behan, her motivation in setting up this organisation is personal.
She was violently raped in her apartment in Praia da Rocha, in the Algarve in 2004.
Convicted rapist and sex offender, Christian Brueckner, who was later named as the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, was tried and acquitted last year in a German court in relation to the rape of Ms Behan as well as the separate rapes of a teenage girl and another woman.
Brueckner's defence team had argued he should be cleared because of a lack of evidence.
Brueckner was also acquitted of sexually abusing two children.
He is already serving a seven-year term in Germany for raping an American pensioner in Portugal in 2005.
Along with two other women, Sandra Daly, a survivor and legal advocate, and Bairbre Kelly, a counsellor and psychotherapist, Ms Behan has now set up a new support and advocacy organisation for victims of sexual and gender-based violence which is based in the midlands.
'Éist - Saying No To Silence' aim to provide a space for victims to come and be heard.
"We came together because there was a real need for a service in the Midlands," said Ms Behan.
"There are some fantastic organisations, such as the Rape Crisis Centres in Athlone and Tullamore but unfortunately, just due to demand, they're overworked and they don't have the ability to be able to see as many people as there's a need for."
"People who have gone through the worst trauma in their life are stripped bare, literally and figuratively, like they have nothing left of themselves"
"There's a sexual assault treatment unit here in Mullingar but no active project or organisation in the town to link in with so we thought it was the right thing for us to do."
The main aim is to provide immediate crisis support for victims of rape and gender based violence.
"The majority of people will never have been inside a police station other than to get their passport photograph stamped but when you are thrown into this world, you're not only thrown into the medical side of things, you're also thrown into a legal side of things," she said.
"People who have gone through the worst trauma in their life are stripped bare, literally and figuratively, like they have nothing left of themselves.
'People who've gone through the worst trauma in their life are stripped bare', says Hazel Behan
"We want to give them back that power so they know what to expect next."
Éist will provide a multitude of support to victims, including legal information, crisis therapy, wellbeing support, and information on services they may need.
Among their services, which Ms Behan says are important, are their efforts to foster community engagement and outreach.
Training on consent and equality
They plan to go to local businesses, organisations and schools to give them training on consent and equality.
"We have an Éist education programme for transition years and up. It is essentially trying to teach them from the ground up," she said.
"We want to educate people about consent, about social norms and things that have kind of maybe gone a bit awry over the last few years, particularly when it comes to social media and what children, younger people are viewing online."
"Hopefully they'll take these skills forward with them, throughout their working life and their family lives, and that will have a ripple effect, we hope, in the wider community as well."
Éist also wants to tackle issues head-on and advocate on behalf of victims and survivors.
"What a survivor needs in those very early days is a place of safety, a place where they can talk"
Survivors of sexual violence have been questioning the justice of their private counselling notes being used as evidence in court cases and have been pushing for an outright ban on the practice.
"In Ireland we are very slow to change. There's been a lot of talk recently in the media about victims counselling notes being used in cases, that's very slow to change, and victims can't get copies of their sexual assault treatment unit notes," said Sandra Daly, another co-founder.
"We're going to lobby for public change, address societal stigmas and look at changes that can be made to the legislation," she added.
For Ms Kelly, it is something she feels very strongly about.
"What a survivor needs in those very early days is a place of safety, a place where they can talk, say whatever they need to say, and know that they are very safe to do so."
"The idea that their notes could ever be used against them when they are striving to get justice, is just so wrong. It's a conversation that we would really like to have with Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan."
