More than 350 people have signed a petition calling on Government to help the cash-strapped Centre Against Abuse.

Residents are being urged to back the movement, which calls for an annual grant of $200,000 to help to reopen the safe house for domestic violence victims.

The petition was launched online at the weekend and had 354 signatures by 5pm yesterday.

The Royal Gazette revealed last month that the Centre had been forced to close its shelter — the only facility of its kind on the Island — and was in danger of having to axe all of its services if it could not secure funding.

Since then hundreds of people have come forth to donate badly needed funds and to pledge their support to save the safe house.

They include the man behind Queen of Bermuda Sybil Barrington, Mark Anderson, who will walk from Dockyard to St George’s on Thursday to raise funds.

Jennifer Attride-Stirling, chief executive officer of the Bermuda Health Council, took the Ice Bucket Challenge but donated the money to the Centre instead of ALS, while Sheelagh Cooper, of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, also vowed to contribute.

The team at Canterbury Law gave $1,000 to the Centre two weeks ago, and the firm’s director Juliana Snelling made a personal donation of $6,500 on behalf of her family last week.

Ms Snelling said it cost the Centre about $160,000 a year to run the 24-bed safe house, so her gift was intended to sponsor a bed — and she called on others to do the same.

“If we can find just 24 individuals or companies — or groups of people/companies — to each give $6,500 we can save the shelter,” she said. “My family is one such group, giving to reopen a bed in my mother’s memory.”

She worked on creating the petition to present to Government, which also calls for a comprehensive action plan to end domestic violence in Bermuda through legislation and policy.

The Centre’s executive director Laurie Shiell said the charity had an annual budget of $500,000. They receive a Government grant, but this has been cut to $75,000 from $100,000.

The petition states that over the past 25 years, nearly 25 people have been killed in Bermuda as a result of domestic violence and that 90 percent of female murders on the Island are related to domestic violence — “and these are only the reported figures”.

The petition also highlights a former client who said that if it were not for the Centre she would have been behind bars — before she approached the charity she thought her only way out was to kill her abuser.

Last year, the Centre helped more than 120 women, more than 30 men, and the safe house offered shelter to 31 women and children.

But the shelter was closed last month and the charity fears it will have to pull the plug on other services, including hotlines, counselling, community education, court advocacy and resettlement help.

“At the Centre Against Abuse, we believe that our Government should take the lead to end domestic abuse, as Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights encourages Governments to protect its citizens’ ‘right to life and security of person’, and this includes domestic violence,” the petition states.

Ms Shiell met with Wayne Scott, Minister of Community, Culture and Sports, last Wednesday to discuss the Centre’s plight.

The Ministry did not respond to a request for comment by press time last night.

Campaigners working to help the Centre have also organised a rally on Tuesday, September 30.

“Show you care by joining the gathering at East Broadway on September 30 at 7:50am until 8:30am on the grassy verge outside BUEI to say ‘Save the Shelter’,” Ms Snelling said. “Just half an hour of your time will go a long way. Signs are being made or bring your own.”

Residents can sign the petition by logging on to www.change.org/p/bermuda-community-save-the-safe-house or you can sign in person at Canterbury Law Limited on the first floor of the Swan Building at 26 Victoria Street, Hamilton.

If you wish to donate to the Centre Against Abuse, funds can be transferred to their HSBC account, number 010-284636-001.

For more information about the Centre, visit www.centreagainstabuse.bm, call 292-4366 or e-mail info@centreagainstabuse.bm