By Shawn Smith-Hill, Contributing Writer
San Diego’s Domestic Violence Council held a candlelight vigil inside the Balboa Park Club Ballroom, honoring the 14 lives lost to domestic violence in San Diego County last year. The ceremony, held during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, had several dignitaries turn out for the event. Among them was a survivor who shared her personal story.
“I’m here today to bring awareness to a really big part of abuse, which is financial abuse, and being a survivor and a childhood survivor, the impact and how I got from that to where I am today,” said Ivette Kuyateh. “I know what it is like to go to the counter to try to pay for groceries, and your account has been wiped out. I know what that is like as a mom and a woman—that the trust you gave to a partner was breached in the most intimate way.”
Ivette Kuyateh was only eleven years old when her mother was slain by her abuser. Kuyateh honored her mother’s memory during the ceremony, saying her mother was her hero.
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