The annual ceremony is held in honor of victims who were killed as a result of domestic violence.
This year’s event focused on providing early intervention for children exposed to violence.
U.S. Attorney for Guam and the NMI Alicia Limtiaco stressed the importance of building a culture of safety and support for victims of abuse.
“The 27 family violence-related fatalities on Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands show the critical need for intervention,” she said via video conference.
“Children exposed to family violence — whether victims or witnesses — without intervention are in dire risk for emotional disorders, mental and physical development challenges, suicide, failure in school, substance abuse and perpetrating violent behavior later in life,” she added.
She noted that U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder has launched an initiative for children exposed to violence as victims and as witnesses.
Family members of victims were on hand for yesterday’s ceremony.
Patricia Quinata, a mother of a victim of domestic violence, said while trying to contain her sobs: “Together we say ‘enough and stop the violence.’ My grief happened on July 4, 1984. It’s been 26 years, three months and 15 days since my husband and I received the dreaded phone call that my daughter Melissa was in an accident.”
She explained how she was told that her daughter had shot herself point blank in the head but it was later discovered in an investigation that her daughter’s husband had been the shooter.
The family members of the victims on Saipan were joined via videoconference by families on Guam, as they each lit a candle in remembrance of their loved ones.
