ORGANISERS of a walk on Sunday had expected wet weather but the rain which came did not dampen the spirits of some 100 people who trooped through the Botanic Gardens.

They had signed up for the event organised by Unifem (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Singapore to raise awareness of violence against women.

It is a first for the organiser, which wanted an occasion to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, declared as Nov25 by the UN.

The walk ended with a candlelight vigil at Unifem's office in Nassim Road.

While official figures in Singapore suggest that such violence has fallen in the last decade, social workers said these do not necessarily paint an accurate picture.

Statistics from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports show that the number of people who sought help in public hospitals fell from 537 in 2000 to 297 in 2005.

The number of reported cases of spousal abuse - the most widespread form of violence against women - dropped from 2,027 to 1,080 in the same period.

'This could just be the tip of the iceberg. There are lots more who don't report,' said Mrs Seah Kheng Yeow, head of family development at the Centre For Promoting Alternatives To Violence.

It handled 800 cases last year, 500 of which were new ones. Nearly 80 per cent of cases of violence it sees are those of spousal abuse. The rest include date violence and the abuse of siblings, children or the elderly.

Read the full story in tomorrow's edition of The Sunday Times.