One in every six girls in the United States and one in four boys is molested during childhood, according to the National Institution of Justice Report.

Victims of child sexual abuse heal with counseling and support

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EL PASO – She fidgeted, playing with her hands and biting her nails, making very little eye contact as she sat on the sandy ground of the park piling the sand as if making a small castle. Before today, she had never told anyone what had happened so many years ago. “Walking through the front door I knew it was going to happen again. I knew I had to stand there and feel his wrinkled cold hands with that one stiff finger, waiting for me.”

Catalina, now 23, was molested as a child starting at age seven by her grandfather.  She asked that her real name not be published.

Felipe Martinez has to go to the hospital every week to have his blood drained to get clean new non-alcoholic blood in his system. (Courtesy of Felipe Martinez)

Alcoholic with cirrhosis of the liver – ‘I started sneaking in beer when I was 13’

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EL PASO  – “I could say God has damned me, but I can only believe I have damned myself,” he paused looked around with miniscule eyes, holding back every tear trying to escape from his sorrowful eyes and whispered, “I’ve damned myself and my family till the day I die. It shouldn’t be long.”

For 34 years Felipe Martinez, now 56, has been suffering with an unbeatable addiction, alcoholism. Now struggling to save his own life because of cirrhosis, an irreversible result of various disorders that damage liver cells over time. Eventually, damage becomes so extensive that the normal structure of the liver is distorted and its function is impaired. The liver damage requires him to go to the hospital every week to have his blood drained to get clean new non-alcoholic blood in his system.