Funding cuts force Amazone to shorten opening hours

The Amazone association will reduce its opening hours and suspend a weekly programme because of funding cuts, ORF reported on Tuesday. Its counselling service and specialist office will continue unchanged for now.

The association said visitor numbers had risen by more than 30 percent in recent years. However, the funding cuts mean its snackATTACK programme, a lunch break without any obligation to buy something, will be suspended until further notice.

From September, the Amazone centre will also close one hour earlier on Fridays. Its new opening hours are Wednesday from 2pm to 6pm, Friday from 2pm to 7pm and Saturday from 2pm to 7pm. Office hours are Monday to Thursday from 9am to noon.

Brigitte Stadelmann, head of the Amazone centre, said girls, young women, intersex, nonbinary, trans and agender people had faced increasing pressure on their mental health and greater exposure to violence in public, digital and private spaces in recent years.

Reducing funding for related services instead of increasing it made established access to counselling and prevention programmes more difficult, Stadelmann said.

The counselling service and specialist office will initially continue without changes. A launch party and two workshops are also scheduled to take place as planned in September.