Finding hope on a clothesline ose a ected by domestic abuse share their stories

According to the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence website, on average, three women a day are murdered by a current or former intimate partner.

victims of domestic violence, and thinks the Clothesline Project is very important.

Colorful T-shirts hung on a clothesline were set up in the Pierce College Mall to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month on Wednesday, Oct. 23.

Campus Violence Response

Team Leader Holly Hagan, who hosted the Clothesline Project, has been in charge of it for the past six years. Hagan created this project because she was once in a violent relationship. She described her numerous violent encounters, including having a shot gun pulled on her, being beaten countless times and being dragged by her hair to the backyard.

“One of the reasons why people are in a domestic violent relationship is because they are not happy with themselves,” Hagan said. “In order to be in a good relationship you have to love yourself and be happy with yourself.”

In California, 147 domestic violence homicides occurred in 2011. Of those 147 domestic violence homicides that occurred, 129 victims were female and 18 were male.

Pierce College student Shaina Barnett knows friends who have been sexually assaulted and been

“[I] offer love and support to anyone that needs it,” Barnett said. “Abuse is not love. The more we bring out awareness, the more people can come out into the open and justice can be served.”

Michelle Borsto, a sociology major, has been helping Hagan for two years.

She clarifies that there are different kinds of abuse including inter-partner violence.

“People think that inter-partner violence is violence that happens just between spouses but it’s not,” Borsto said. “It happens in high school relationships and in college relationships. It’s not just between spouses but between people that are dating.”

Borsto says to use caution when trying to help people that have just gone through a situation such as domestic violence.

“I find it’s best not to say anything,” Borsto said. “Just be willing to listen.” who invaded my body. And then he responded that he wasn’t a serial rapist, but a serial killer because he kills millions,” she said.

The journal helped her tremendously in coping with the disease.

At the same time, she wasn’t one to give up easily either. Her friends would say that, “Cancer is in for it,” because they all knew how tough she was.

According to the American Cancer Society, about 232,340 cases of new invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women this year and about 39,620 women will die from it. Numbers have decreased about 7 percent and current statistics show there are 2.8 million breast cancer survivors.

For more information about breast cancer go to cancer.org, or the Susan G Komen website.