An offensive post by a pizza franchise may turn out to be good news for the cash-strapped Wellington Rape Crisis.

The pizza franchise has offered to help the struggling agency meet its budget shortfall after the company's Facebook post describing a scene of sexual abuse caused offence.

Hell Pizza posted last week's winning ‘‘confessional’’ on their Facebook page  and though the post was quickly taken down, screen grabs were sent around the internet.

They have since apologised, saying their social media manager got it wrong.

Hell has today announced it will be helping Wellington Rape Crisis meet their $55,000 budget shortfall by donating $10,000.

Wellington Rape Crisis said earlier this week that it would be closing its doors one day a week from now on because it could not afford to operate at full capacity.

Hell has also offered to match any donations until the end of the month so that the rape crisis centre can stay open five days a week.

Hell said in a Facebook post that its staff would also be put through sexual violence awareness training so that this doesn’t happen again.

Wellington Rape Crisis Agency Manager Natalie Gousmett said Hell Pizza had made a mistake and the post was offensive and harmful. 

"We are pleased to see that they have apologised unreservedly and are taking action to ensure something similar does not occur again."

The centre would accept Hell's $10,000 donation, Ms Gousmett said.

“It just seems wrong that an agency like ours is put in the position of having to make decisions about whether to accept a donation like this.

"We provide essential and valued services to people who have been raped and sexually abused; we should be sustainably funded by Government."

Contact Shabnam Dastgheib
Breaking news reporter
Email: shabnam.dastgheib@dompost.co.nz
Twitter: @shab_d

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