By Shawntel Smith-Hill, Voice and Viewpoint 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. She claimed that her decision to become an attorney was motivated by what happened to her mother. She now works to support victims of domestic abuse.
“Within domestic abuse, there is the domestic violence; there’s also coercion and threats; there’s also financial abuse; there is also psychological harm, the emotional harm,” San Diego Domestic Violence Council President Claudio Grasso said.
She went on to emphasize that domestic violence is a serious public health issue that has pervasive damaging effects on victims.
According to the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, non-Hispanic Black and Native American/Alaska Native women reported higher prevalence rates of lifetime intimate partner violence (IPV).
Several U.S. studies on domestic violence have documented a disproportionate rate of cases where victims were mostly minorities.
The San Diego City Council overwhelmingly authorized a $6.2 million grant from the county on Tuesday morning to be used for an emergency shelter for victims of sexual assault and human trafficking, as well as domestic abuse survivors.
