“The coalition has been in existence since 2007,” said Maisie Tenorio. They have been working with the Northern Marianas Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force.
“We honor the Domestic Violence Awareness Month for a couple of reasons,” Tenorio said. “We want to provide a venue for the community to help and educate themselves to help their friends and family. We want to create a safe place for them to come and get information.
“The second one is we want survivors to know that there are people out there who support them, who believe in them, and who want to help them.
That’s the most important part of it —for survivors to know that we care about them.”
She added, “We also hold it to remember those whom we have lost to domestic violence. Sometimes domestic violence can be fatal. We use this time to honor and remember them.”
According to Tenorio, the Domestic Violence Awareness Month committee members are: the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence Task Force, the Domestic Violence Intervention Center, the Board of Parole, the Office of Probation, the Family Court Division, the Office of the Attorney General, Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research Extension and Education Service, the Department of Public Safety and the Division of Youth Services.
The organizations that participated in the event were the Domestic Violence Intervention Center, NMC College Access Grant Program, the Division of Youth Services, the Breast Cancer and Cervical Cancer Program, the Diabetes Coalition, Guma Esperansa and the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.
“We want to thank the community because it’s not easy to stand up and speak out about domestic violence domestic violence should not be in our community,” Tenorio said.
“It takes everybody to fight domestic violence and end it.”
