In the dead of a Sudanese night, 13-year-old Daniel Agau ran from deadly gunfire in his village and became a "Lost Boy," scratching for life in refugee camps where lions killed his friends.

Decades and continents separate their individual horrors, but this they all share: They may be your neighbor.

A little more than a year ago, the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture and Refugee Services opened in Clearwater, the first and only one in Florida. There are 27 such centers in the nation.

The Tampa Bay center currently serves 147 people. However, officials estimate there could be twice to 20 times that number of torture survivors living here.

For years, American agencies that locally resettled refugees from war-torn nations catered to their physical needs, putting roofs over their heads or shirts on their backs. More recently the focus has turned inward, to the deep-seated psychological effects of torture.

"You can't just give four months of food and clothes and a job and expect someone to function after surviving torture," said Michael Bernstein, president of Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, which runs the survivors center in conjunction with three refugee resettlement agencies in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

For the past few days, the local center has hosted a national workshop that gathered officials from torture treatment centers across the country. The center steers survivors to therapy but also trains health care professionals to deal with what is sometimes a new experience for both victim and doctor.

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