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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 2, 2002
Hundreds of torture survivors live in the Tampa Bay area. A little more than a year ago, a center opened to help them cope with the past and with the future. Unfolding below are stories of six people helped by the center.
Torture can alter the brain, so that concentrating on small tasks becomes impossible. It can render limbs useless, cause inexplicable pain and leave meaningful relationships out of reach. "Torture is an assault on meaning, if you will," said Rosa Garcia-Peltoniemi, director of clinical services at the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, the country's first. "What is the meaning of this, if a human being can behave like this toward another human being?" Symptoms of torture -- chronic body pain, severe depression, constant anxiety, guilt and self-hatred -- cut across cultures.
Although the broad physiological symptoms of torture are universal, people from different cultures may respond differently. Some may want to hold everything in. Others may need to talk. And sometimes what seems like a symptom may be something altogether different. "In Asian cultures, they don't look at your eyes, it's not polite," said Faina Sakovich, program director with the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture and Refugee Services. "If you have a client in your room, you might think they have some kind of problem, but he doesn't do this because of his cultural behavior."
Experts try to steer torture victims to healing through three stages, which aren't linear, but rather cyclical. The first stage entails helping the torture victim feel safe again. The second stage is reconstructing the past and mourning the losses. The third stage involves envisioning a future, connecting to life and other humans through trust and relationships, holding a job or being able to sit through lectures in class.
Clients of the Florida center receive medical, psychological and legal assistance through a network of providers in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Experts at the nation's first torture program in Minneapolis say that sometimes the victims know little about the way this country works, so they need social service help with basic needs even at the same time they need assistance coping with aftereffects of torture. The Minneapolis center emphasizes privacy and confidentiality to the clients. Once they feel safe, clients can tell their stories, write them or even begin "witnessing" about their experiences. But for many, the mourning never ends. "For some people, the losses have been so profound and multiple that maybe it's a task for a lifetime," said Garcia-Peltoniemi, of the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis.
Thousands of refugees -- some of them torture survivors -- live in the Tampa Bay area. Patti Grogan, policy manager for refugee services with the Florida Department of Children and Families, gave several reasons for the area's popularity. Key, she said, is its strong refugee resettlement agencies: Lutheran Services, Catholic Charities, World Relief and Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services. Ms. Grogan added that newcomers like to move to communities where their families and neighbors have already settled. Climate counts, too. At the Tampa Bay center, clients include victims from as far back as the Holocaust of World War II to more recent arrivals from conflict-ravaged areas such as Vietnam, Russia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Burma and India. Currently, though, the majority of the center's clients come from the former Yugoslavia.
The Florida Center for Survivors of Torture currently serves 147 clients, likely many fewer than need help, those in charge say. Rachel Tschida, director of communications for the Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis, the country's pre-eminent torture treatment facility, said the estimated 500,000 victims nationwide is based on 2 to 3 percent of the overall refugee population. She said, however, that the preliminary results of a study indicate that those percentages should probably be as high as 30 to 40 percent.
Barely a year old, the Florida Center for Survivors of Torture and Refugee Services this week welcomed more than two dozen representatives from similar centers nationwide who gathered for a four-day training session held at the TradeWinds resort on St. Pete Beach and at the Florida Holocaust Museum. Based in Clearwater, the Florida center currently serves residents in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties. It is the only such facility in the state and one of 27 nationwide. Funded by a four-year grant from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and another from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Florida center is run by Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services in partnership with Lutheran Services, World Relief and Catholic Charities.