IF YOU are a young adult caught in an abusive relationship, speak out and stop the violence.
This is the message that a charity group wants to send to those aged between 17 and 25 in a week-long awareness campaign starting today.
The Centre for Promoting Alternatives to Violence (Pave), working with a group of Nanyang Technological University students, will reach out to schools to educate students about such violence.
For teens and young adults seeking help after having abused or been abused by their partners, Pave is the place to turn to.
The charity, which specialises in counselling those affected by violence, handled more than 800 cases of violence last year, mostly cases of spousal abuse.
Its senior social worker Seah Kheng Yeow said the number of young people the centre helps is rising, though it is still small: Last year, the centre saw nine cases of dating violence, up from two in 2002.
Pave is concerned that those who resort to violent behaviour before marriage will continue to do so after.
Indeed, for 'quite a number' of married couples Pave has counselled, the violence began when the couples were dating, said Mrs Seah.
She added: 'We know that the problem is out there, but people don't know where to get help or even acknowledge they have been abused. It's not something people talk about, so we want to address this problem.'
Read the full report in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
