We’ve heard a lot about breast cancer this month, and well we should.

However, October is also Domestic Violence Awareness month, and that subject needs some attention, too.

On Thursday, students at Hinds Community College in Vicksburg worked to shine some light on the issue of domestic violence.

Students from the school’s cosmetology department in Utica came to the Vicksburg campus and painted the fingernails of anyone who wanted purple, the signature color of the domestic violence awareness campaign. The Hinds culinary department distributed purple cupcakes and candy apples.

Also on Thursday, students gathered to hear about domestic violence and how they can help someone in need.

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, domestic violence is defined as the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault and/or other abuse behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. It includes physical violence, sexual violence, threats and other emotional abuse, the group writes on its website.

On an average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equals more than 10 million women and men, according to the group.

One in three women and one in four men have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime. And intimate partner violence accounts for 15 percent of all violent crime, according to ncadv.org.

The plight of a woman or man in a physically violent relationship can seem hopeless. Often the person being abused stays with his or her partner out of fear or a lack of finances to walk away from the abuse.

In Vicksburg and Warren County, we have a place to which victims of domestic violence can turn. That’s Haven House.

Now 31 years old, Haven House is a domestic violence shelter committed to offer safe shelter for abuse victims.

If you need help getting out of an abusive relationship, or know someone who does, please contact Haven House Family Shelter at 601-638-0555.

Don’t wait. The situation won’t get better by its self. Don’t put yourself or your children in danger by staying even one more day.