Domestic violence victims remembered
By Kat Russell, Reporter
Kentucky New Era
October 29, 2014
http://www.kentuckynewera.com/news/article_1fed0248-5fef-11e4-a797-87523cce0bd9.html
The names of 27 Kentucky women who were killed the past year in acts of domestic violence were read aloud Wednesday night while candles were lit in their honor during the annual lotus lighting ceremony at Little River behind the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library.
Organized by employees at Sanctuary Inc., a nonprofit agency that works with domestic violence victims and their families in nine Kentucky counties, the ceremony is intended to remember those who were unable to escape their abusers and died as a result of that violence.
Anita Brown, a program director with Sanctuary Inc., said the lotus flower is symbolic the women and families they help.
“The lotus flower grows in the muck and the mud of a pond and then it reaches toward the light and when it blooms it becomes a beautiful flower,” she said. “That’s kind of how we see our women — maybe they started out in not that good of a situation and hopefully when they come to Sanctuary and they start learning how to be the person they can be, then they become that lotus flower.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, domestic violence accounts for 21 percent of all violent victimizations, including rape, sexual assault and aggravated or simple assault by intimate partners.
Additionally, in the United States, one in four women will experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetime, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year and 1⁄3 of female homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
“It’s absolutely a big problem,” said Tracy Clark, director of clinical and transitional services. “And Kentucky has a significant rate of domestic violence. We see the volume and we know who we’re serving and what we’re capable of doing and we know that there are so many people who are not receiving our services because they don’t seek help or may not know there are people that can help them.”
Awareness and education are important tools in combating the domestic violence problem, the women agreed, but Wednesday night was about ensuring those who could not escape are not forgotten.
“We spend a lot of time talking about awareness — you know, this is domestic violence awareness month — and we have spent time with different survivors events and things like that,” Brown said, “but we started thinking about the ones that did not survive and so we decided to do more of a solemn ceremony basically in memory of the people who did not survive.”
Organized by employees at Sanctuary Inc., a nonprofit agency that works with domestic violence victims and their families in nine Kentucky counties, the ceremony is intended to remember those who were unable to escape their abusers and died as a result of that violence.
Anita Brown, a program director with Sanctuary Inc., said the lotus flower is symbolic the women and families they help.
“The lotus flower grows in the muck and the mud of a pond and then it reaches toward the light and when it blooms it becomes a beautiful flower,” she said. “That’s kind of how we see our women — maybe they started out in not that good of a situation and hopefully when they come to Sanctuary and they start learning how to be the person they can be, then they become that lotus flower.”
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, domestic violence accounts for 21 percent of all violent victimizations, including rape, sexual assault and aggravated or simple assault by intimate partners.
Additionally, in the United States, one in four women will experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetime, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year and 1⁄3 of female homicide victims are killed by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
“It’s absolutely a big problem,” said Tracy Clark, director of clinical and transitional services. “And Kentucky has a significant rate of domestic violence. We see the volume and we know who we’re serving and what we’re capable of doing and we know that there are so many people who are not receiving our services because they don’t seek help or may not know there are people that can help them.”
Awareness and education are important tools in combating the domestic violence problem, the women agreed, but Wednesday night was about ensuring those who could not escape are not forgotten.
“We spend a lot of time talking about awareness — you know, this is domestic violence awareness month — and we have spent time with different survivors events and things like that,” Brown said, “but we started thinking about the ones that did not survive and so we decided to do more of a solemn ceremony basically in memory of the people who did not survive.”
