Domestic Violence Awareness Month

They are small but powerful. Standing on the tabletop on the main floor of the C.H. Booth Library, the three Silent Witnesses cast a shadow upon the tidy piles of literature and brochures that surround them. They stand as a reminder that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. They stand as a reminder of three Newtown women whose lives were lost to domestic violence: Helle Craft, Christine Czap, and Louise Khunn-Cushnik.

According to the American Institute on Domestic Violence, more than 1,200 women are killed each year due to intimate partner violence. The Silent Witness Program, a national initiative begun in Minnesota in 1990 that has spread to all 50 states, consists of red silhouettes commemorating the lives of women whose lives have been lost to domestic violence. While the original 26 Silent Witnesses in Minnesota were life-sized figures, subsequent states have opted to create smaller, more easily moved statues.

The three Newtown silhouettes can be viewed through October 30 at the C.H. Booth Library, made available through the generosity of the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury and the efforts of the Newtown Woman’s Club, GFWC, Inc. The goal of The Silent Witness Program is “0 by 2010,” that is, no deaths from intimate partner violence anywhere in the United States by the year 2010.

Information and emergency contact cards, pamphlets, books, and novels related to the issue of domestic violence are part of the display put together by the Newtown Woman’s Club. The club is supporting the International General Federation of Women’s Clubs President Jacquelyne Pierce’s Special Project for 2007-08, a Campaign Against Domestic Violence through this display, as well as by participating in the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury Stamp Out Domestic Violence Program’s cellphone collection, the Community United Walk Against Domestic Violence that was held in Danbury on October 7, and through monetary donations.

Used cellphones can be left at the C.H. Booth Library and donations can be mailed to the Women’s Center of Greater Danbury, 2 West Street, Danbury CT 06801 or at womenscenterofgreaterdanbury.org.

Helle Craft, Christine Czap, and Louise Khunn-Cushnik can no longer speak. But the Silent Witnesses give voice to their deaths and to the plight of others who are affected by domestic violence.