Center helps torture victims adapt to new life in U.S.

Oct. 6, 2004

A UMNS photo by John Gordon Anita (center) talks with the Rev. Sharmin DeMoss and Manuel Balbona at the Center for Survivors of Torture.

By John Gordon*

DALLAS (UMNS)—After being arrested repeatedly and tortured for drawing political cartoons for an underground newspaper, Willy knew he had to leave his home and family in the African country of Cameroon.

“It wasn’t a matter of choice. It was, should I say, a matter of need,” Willy said.

Willy is one of an estimated 500,000 torture survivors now living in the United States after fleeing their home countries. He asked that his last name not be used because he fears retaliation against his family.

“Had I remained over there, only God knows what would have happened,” he said.  “They’d be singing my ‘Candles in the Wind.’ I would be dead, probably, by now.”

Willy received a visa to travel to the United States for a conference. Instead of returning home, he applied for and was granted asylum. He received counseling and other assistance from the Center for Survivors of Torture, a nonprofit agency in Dallas.

“Cameroon is not like in America, where you can make a caricature of the president and nobody does anything about it,” Willy said. “Well, in Cameroon, if you do that, you better be ready to run.”

Torture survivors seeking political asylum invariably describe a deep feeling of loneliness, with no family or friends in the United States. The center has a small staff, with three employees, and depends on volunteers like Pat Henderson to help torture victims adjust to American ways.

“A big part of it is just to try to help them feel comfortable,” Henderson said, “because I can’t imagine what it would be like to just leave your culture, your family, and just come to such a totally foreign environment. If I can make that a little easier by making them a little more comfortable, that’s very rewarding.”
 
She has taken groups on field trips, taught them arts and crafts, and helped them navigate public transportation.

Henderson learned about the center’s need for volunteers through her church, First United Methodist in Quinlan. The center is in a former duplex apartment on the grounds of Grace United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas.

“I see an awful lot of pain,” she said. “It’s just hard to imagine what they have gone through.”

Henderson has also helped ease the transition for Anita, who said she was imprisoned and tortured because she was an AIDS and women’s rights activist in Zimbabwe. Anita, like Willy, sought asylum after being allowed into the United States to attend a conference.

“A lot is happening (in Zimbabwe)—people beaten, kidnapped, disappearing, torture,” she said. “There is poverty; there is no food.”

Anita was referred to the center after stress landed her in a hospital. Counselors say many of the victims suffer the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Those symptoms include depression, feelings of hopelessness and nightmares.

“If all things go well, and things change and improve back home, I’ll have to go back,” Anita said. “I’m the breadwinner for my family. If things don’t change, I won’t be able to come back home.”

Manuel Balbona, executive director of the Dallas center, said torture is widespread internationally. The center typically deals with up to 60 clients at a time.

“Fully two-thirds of all the nations in the United Nations use torture, more or less openly,” Balbona said. “They find a very effective way to control general dissent by selectively attacking and torturing individuals that could be an influence.”

Many of those seeking asylum are students. The center has also assisted doctors, lawyers and judges.

“They’re people with the right ideas, the democratic ideas, that they were willing to risk their lives for them in their countries,” Balbona said.

The U.S. Justice Department is “not particularly friendly” to those seeking asylum, he said, especially in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Asylum seekers must convince a judge they have been tortured.

Balbona said physical scars are the easiest to heal.

“Even if you lose a hand or a finger, well, you adapt to it,” he said.  “The psychological scars last a lifetime.”

The goal of the center is to help torture survivors begin new lives and, if possible, bring their families to live with them. Much of the center’s funding has come from United Nations grants.

“I think it’s a great benefit to the United States to have these very capable people coming with proven strength and loyalty to our principles that we stress so much,” he said.

Willy is working on his master’s degree and would like to become a graphic designer. He said he will likely return to Cameroon if the government changes.

“Sometimes I feel happy I got out. Sometimes I feel guilty that I did,” he said. “If you get out, what about those who did not?”

*Gordon is a freelance producer and writer in Marshall, Texas.

News media contact: Ginny Underwood, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Suggested Articles Ad apologizes for mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners Healing Through the Advance Sierra Leone report due soon, bishop says

Suggested Resources Dallas Center for Survivors of Torture National Center for Victims of Torture General Board of Global Ministries