Hope in Life Foundation Cooperation Circle had another opportunity to reach out to community members on Saturday, October 18, 2014 and share during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We shared facts and figures collected and published by the NNEDV for 2013 on domestic violence. We were able to communicate to the audience that the issue has becomes the fastest growing
epidemic in the world and needs attention. During the interaction we asked the audience awareness questions, e.g. were they aware that October is considered to be National Domestic Violence Awareness Month? Why the Golden State of CA was turning purple this month?
Domestic Violence is not just a criminal issue but also a social issue and a health priority. In the U.S., 24 percent of adult women and 14 percent of adult men have been physically assaulted by a partner at some point in their lives. According to Robert Pearl, M.D. it triggers not just personal suffering but also leads to lesser productivity, absenteeism and raises health care costs to disproportionate levels.
Each year, an estimated 8 million days of paid work is lost in the U.S. because of domestic violence. Domestic violence costs $8.3 billion in expenses annually: a combination of higher medical costs ($5.8 billion) and lost productivity ($2.5 billion). Abused women are not just victims of mental harassment, depression, and low self-esteem but also fall prey to chronic diseases including heart disease and asthma.
The NNEDV statistics revealed lack of shelter and the number of unmet requests due to unavailability of staff, government funding, lack of legal representation and various other issues. We wish to motivate people from various religious backgrounds to proactively combat this issue through education and training as opposed to offering help to abused individuals after the fact even though such services are available. We are addressing the root cause of the problem by working with children and community members and we realize that it will take, maybe, over two decades to eradicate
the problem.
