It was 46 years ago today that Wodonga resident Jen Campbell escaped the violence of her ex-husband. On November 30, 1977, she told her husband she was going to the shops to buy some milk, but instead went to the Richmond police station. "I'm very fortunate to be alive," she said. "I had bruises and bumps everywhere - it was shocking. "But I'm here to tell the story." Speaking to a crowd of domestic violence victims, police and support workers, she encouraged all victims to seek help. "I know exactly what a lot of people are going through, and it's a terrible situation to be in," she said. "I won't go into the graphic details." On Thursday, November 30, police and domestic violence support services hosted a walk in Wodonga to raise awareness of family violence as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign. Senior Sergeant Shane Martin of Wodonga police said it is an issue that everybody has a role in solving. "One woman every week is being murdered by a former or current partner," he said. "It is ludicrous that that is still happening in 2023 by people who are supposed to love and care for them. "Family and friends are the biggest players; if they see it happening, they must speak up and say something. "Everybody has to jump in and help each other out." President of Zonta Albury-Wodonga, Alwyn Friedersdorff, labelled domestic violence a political issue as well as a community problem. "As of last night, 68 women have been killed," she said. "This number is well over the average of one woman killed per week each year, and this shows deaths of women from violence are on the increase. "We need to advocate to our politicians much better than we do. "We need safer safe houses because people are still at risk, and girls often don't feel safe there. "Often they are left without any resources, and they will suddenly have second thoughts and think, 'I shouldn't have done this, I better go back', and so we lose that girl." Rhianna Coleiro, of Junction Support Services, said domestic violence is a driving factor behind homelessness and children becoming disengaged at school. "Last financial year, we supported 186 children, young people and families with family violence counselling," she said. "A lot of people who come to us seeking homelessness support have experienced family violence, and as a result, they don't have a safe place to live. "So I think the (homelessness) crisis that we are experiencing at the moment is directly linked to family violence, with those people not having options and safe places to go to." Savannah West, a children's resource coordinator at the Statewide Children's Resource Program, said out of the last 20 applications she received, 19 of the children had experienced family violence. "It's extremely prevalent and impacts kids massively," she said. "It impacts children in different ways, in how they engage in school, in how they engage with friends and their trust in relationships. "That's why it is vital that we have the resources available to support children when it happens, as early as possible." Meanwhile in Canberra, Farrer MP Sussan Ley read out the names of 60 women killed this year in a speech to the House of Representatives. "These are the names of the women who have been murdered in our suburbs, in our schools and in our workplaces, found in bath tubs and change rooms and bins," she said. "These are the names of women taken too soon. Ms Ley said the list of names may have been confronting but urged greater action to address the issue. "We need more, we need men to hear these names and we need men to hear our voices because in the face of this challenge, we can come together and we can eliminate this violence," she said. "But that starts with being brutally honest with ourselves."