Louisville family hoping to raise awareness of child sexual abuse with their story

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville family is exposing their darkest, most painful secret hoping to prevent others from experiencing the same tragedy.

They are candidly talking about childhood sexual abuse hoping to spread awareness about a crime that happens all too frequently not to address.

Katya Estes's abuser, an extended family member, was sent to jail for raping her repeatedly since she was a young girl.

It has now been a year since that sentencing.

"Some days I'll be on top of the world. And some days I wont be. It's just learning how to deal with it," Estes said Wednesday.

While the nightmare is over, living with what happened is a daily struggle for the 19-year-old and her entire family -- especially her mother.

"I would have given my life to have her not go through a minute," Eileen Estes said through tears. "But the best thing is to help to move forward and to do whatever you can to raise awareness so that other people don't suffer that same kind of pain."

Now the mother and daughter are channeling that anger and pain into action.

"What's going to be fixed if nobody is talking about it?" Katya asked.

She and her mother have teamed up with the Family and Children's Place, the agency that continues to help the Estes family heal.

"Annually we'll serve around 6,000 children and family members," JT Henderson, Vice President of Resource Development at Family & Children's Place said. "And we do that through a number of different programs which are designed to prevent abuse from happening, stop abuse when it does occur and then finally help families and children recover from abuse if it does occur."

Katya is the face of the "Stomp the Silence" 5K this Saturday. The goal is to talk about the uncomfortable topic of childhood sexual abuse and to educate attendees about warning signs.

"It's children that are acting in ways that are strange to children," Henderson explained.

The Family and Children's Place wants to connect those warning signs to resources for those who need it.

"The only person who benefits from keeping the issue of child sexual abuse silent is the predator," Eileen Estes said.

"The goal, as Katya told you, is that if we can get out there and we can stomp the silence and we can prevent the abuse from happening in one boy or one girl, that's a win in our book," Henderson said.

"There's so many reasons inside me why I want to do this," Katya said. "Mainly because I want to help people."

If you suspect a child is being abused you can call Family and Children's Place to investigate. You will not face a penalty if claims turn out to be unsubstantiated.

For information about Saturday's 5K,

click here