Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention month began April 1, and despite the COVID-19 situation, Diego Garcia’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program continues.

Prevention measures have been put in place to keep both uniformed victim advocates (UVA) and clients safe.

SAPR UVAs have been instructed not to conduct face-to-face responses until further notice. They will communicate with clients through telephone and email. Additionally, UVAs have received temporary permission to use virtual platforms. Client intake will be done by scanning necessary documents to the client.

UVAs have been instructed to brief their clients of the privacy concerns of using virtual platforms.

Diego Garcia is currently observing HPCON-C. As a result, service members and civilians have needed to maintain six feet social distance, events have been canceled, and most departments have gone down to 50% manning.

The COVID-19 situation has intensified as the worldwide number of cases has passed 1 million, and there have been approximately 12,064 deaths in the United States as of April 8, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For more information, visit https://www.sapr.mil/. Service members on Diego Garcia can also reach out to the command sexual assault response coordinator (SARC), Bethany Cortes.

NSF Diego Garcia provides logistic, service, recreational and administrative support to U.S. and Allied Forces forward deployed to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Gulf.

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For more news from Navy Support Facility Diego Garcia, visit www.navy.mil/local/nsfdg/.