&#8220Heather,” at the tender age of 8, has already been a victim of sexual assault.

Her sister, &#8220Annie,” who’s 4, was spared the same fate – but only because Heather convinced her mother’s boyfriend to let Annie sleep, and instead sexually abuse her.

Although Warren County Attorney Amy Milliken changed the girls’ names when she told their life stories Thursday morning at a press conference to celebrate Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month, the message was clear: Child abuse and neglect affects everyone, everywhere, and it’s up to schools, resource centers and community members to do something about it.

The conference, held at the Family Enrichment Center, brought together dozens of teachers, human service workers, child and family advocates and local officials to hear speeches from various representatives of state and local programs. Milliken was the featured speaker.

It was Heather’s school that first noticed her excessive absences, Milliken said. When Heather’s mother didn’t do anything about her daughter’s truancy, the school went to family court for help, where a judge referred the case to the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

&#8220This family had food rotting on the floor, they had food rotting in the bedroom, they had animal feces on the floor,” Milliken said, going on to describe the soiled clothing on the floor Heather and Annie had to sift through every morning.

The girls were removed from the home, Milliken said, and placed in foster care together, which is rare. And although the household they were taken from was squalid and abusive, it was all they knew, she said.

&#8220You are 4 years old and you are 8 years old,” Milliken told the audience. &#8220Your whole life is turned upside-down and you get a black Hefty trash bag. … ‘Pick up your things, you’ve got to get out of this house.’ ”

This story has a happy ending, Milliken said, but not all of the children who were abused in the Barren River region last year had the same good fortune. The girls and their mother are getting counseling, she said, and the mother’s boyfriend is behind bars, where he will stay for as long as there’s someone to fight to keep him there.

&#8220There are children in Warren County being abused, and one child is too many,” Milliken said.

Milliken’s heartfelt speech echoed the sentiment in the remarks of Eugene Foster, undersecretary of Children and Family Services at the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Foster praised the Barren River region for its many resources and urged everyone present to work together to keep the area’s children safe.

&#8220It does indeed take a village to raise children and to protect them,” he said. &#8220There is no higher purpose, no higher calling, than protecting children.”

Last year, Foster said, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services received 67,000 referrals across the state, 10,000 of which turned out to be substantiated. The Barren River region accounted for 2,300 of those cases, he said.

Although it wasn’t mentioned at the conference, the most recent case of alleged child abuse that resulted in death occurred earlier this month, when 2-month-old Amaya Peters was taken to the hospital after reportedly being shaken and thrown April 11. She died April 17, and her father, 20-year-old Jeffrey Lamont Peters, is charged with murder in conjunction with the incident.

In the state of Kentucky, 34 children died last year from child abuse and neglect, said Rashmi Adi-Brown, director of programs and prevention services at Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky. To help increase awareness of the signs of child abuse and neglect, her agency is launching a new initiative called Child Abuse Recognition and Education, which will train physicians and their staffs to better detect the possibility of abuse. The program is free, she said, and will help to foster relations between area doctors and advocacy groups.

By bringing the community together to rally against the indignity of abuse and neglect, and by putting a focus on addressing a family’s basic needs, child abuse and neglect can be stopped, Foster said. He called on everyone present to keep fighting the battle &#8220until we know every child in Kentucky feels loved, feels nurtured, feels safe.”

Short & Simple

Community Collaborations for Children will host a free parental training from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on May 11 at the Sloan Convention Center, featuring topics including Shaken Baby Syndrome, safe sleep habits, childhood injury prevention, and increasing effectiveness as fathers.

The training is available to parents as well as individuals who work directly with children and parents. To pre register, which is required by May 8, call Lisa Fields at 782-3162, Ext. 226 or visit the Community Action Web site at www.casoky.org.

Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) of Warren County will hold a candlelight vigil in Fountain Square Park at 8 p.m. April 26. The vigil will honor victims of child abuse and neglect. For more information, call CASA at 782- 5353.

– To report child abuse in Warren County, call the county Office for Protection and Permanency at 746-7447. More information can also be found at chfs.ky.gov