The women’s words hung along the windows of the Haskell Indian Nations University student union.

Written on T-shirts, they gave voice to stories long unheard.

“No one deserves to be treated like this,” read the red marker on a white shirt. A headstone was drawn with the words “R.I.P.” written inside.

These are the stories of abused women, hung from clotheslines in the hopes of getting other women to be silent no longer.

“Our hope is that other women, when they see these, decide to seek help,” said Megan Hughes, outreach coordinator for Women’s Transitional Care Services.

In observation of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Hughes and others at WTCS, a local shelter and counseling center for domestic violence survivors, have hung the shirts of the Clothesline Project in various locations around the area, many of which will remain up for the rest of October.

This month, the shirts have been, or soon will be, on display at three locations in Lawrence.

Megan Hughes, outreach coordinator for Women's Transitional Care Services, hangs some T-shirts Wednesday morning in Haskell's student union. The project is to help raise awareness of battered women; the shirts show people's feelings from being battered or knowing someone who has gone through the experience.

Wednesday, they hung in the student union window at Haskell. This Saturday, the shirts will travel to the Lawrence Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., and they’ve been displayed all month at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St.

The shirts will also be on display at Baker University in Baldwin, the Hope House and the Oskaloosa Public Library.

The entire collection is never on display at once, said Sarah Terwelp, executive director of WTCS; the collection is just too large.

After nearly 10 years of the project’s existence, the collection of shirts now numbers into the hundreds.

Every year, she said, the collection grows, especially if the shirts are hung during an event.

“We add shirts to it if they feel the need to tell their stories,” Terwelp said.

And through the years, women have shared, expanding the collection by between 25 and 50 shirts a year, she said.

“There are many women out there experiencing violence,” Terwelp said. “It’s a great opportunity to talk with them so they can share their stories.”