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When the school bell rang at day's end, most kids excitedly ran home. Not me. I walked as slowly as possible. I did not want to get home. My stepdad was a violent abusive man, and I was afraid of him.

At night I often lay in bed, covering myself with a blanket in hopes of being invisible and safe. I heard the screams of my mother as she was being beaten and feared that I would be the next target of his ceaseless rage.

Some nights my mom would load us kids in the station wagon and drive out to the middle of nowhere so that we could be safe and sleep for a few hours. But the inevitable dawn would come, and we would slowly drive back to the awaiting terror.

In the 1970s, there was no help for women escaping domestic violence. There were no shelters. There were no advocates. There were no funds that could have helped my mom and us kids to escape.

In fact, just the opposite existed. There was a culture of "He's your husband. Just live with it." "Close the curtains and quit calling us."

As a child, I felt the impact of domestic violence very powerfully. As an adult, I became a prosecutor handling sexual assault and DV cases.

For the last 26 years I have worked with more than 3,000 victims and have seen the devastation up close.

One sexual assault victim went from a happy college student to a recluse who lost her job and career because she couldn't leave her home. Many victims fear being alone in their own homes or sleeping in their own beds. One victim told me she thinks of committing suicide daily because of her sexual assault. Some victims cry uncontrollably, have lost all joy in life and cannot function normally.

Every single victim I have worked with desperately needs our help and services.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was passed in 1994, providing funding for investigation, prosecution and services to women who are victims of physical and sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner. VAWA has saved the lives of millions of women and has made life better for millions more abused women and their children.

President Donald Trump is considering closing the Office for Violence Against Women (OVW) and terminating all of VAWA's 25 programs. How is it possible that our country cannot afford $1.5 billion for critical, life-saving services for victims, but can afford $20 billion taxpayer dollars to build a wall?

In 2015 Utah received $1,470,523 from VAWA to fund 39 agencies providing services to 16,659 survivors of DV, sexual assault and stalking. The impact of destroying VAWA will be devastating to Utah women and children, and so many jobs lost and careers destroyed.

According to the Utah Department of Health:

• Each year more than 3,000 Utah victims enter shelters to escape domestic violence. At least that many are turned away due to lack of funding. Too many Utah children are directly exposed to intimate partner-related violent assaults and homicides and most of these children are under six years of age.

• Women in Utah experience 175,000 intimate partner-related physical assaults and rapes each year.

• One in three Utah women will experience sexual violence and/or DV during her lifetime. This number is higher than the national average.

• Each year the cost of sexual violence totals nearly $5 billion in Utah, almost $1,700 per Utah resident.

We, as a nation, should never go back to doing nothing to help victims, tacitly condoning this violence.

I call upon all citizens of Utah, especially Utah leaders, to stand up and speak up opposing the destruction of VAWA programs for women and children who cannot speak for themselves.

Donna Kelly has been a prosecutor of sexual assault and domestic violence cases for more than 26 years. She serves at the Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Resource Prosecutor for the Utah Prosecution Council.