Center for Survivors of Torture

News Archive

United Nations International Day in Support of Torture Survivors reached new heights in Texas with two celebrations.

On Saturday, June 23, the Central Texas Outreach Office celebrated in conjunction with agencies in Austin who serve refugees. There was a feast of international foods, children's art tent, three movies (including "The Secret Life of Words" from the International Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims), booths, drumming and dancing. Over 200 people attended and crowed in to eat while the rain poured outside. CST's presentation board was featured on the KXAN news that night for its 15 seconds of fame.

On Tuesday, June 26, the North Texas Home Office celebrated with an open house. In spite of the pouring rain, seventy-nine people walked through the door between 3:00 PM and 8:30. The little house was overflowing with the loving care and warm hugs of past and present clients, employees, interns, volunteers, supporters, pro bono providers, collaborators from twelve agencies, and friends and family. Big Thought/Young Audiences sponsored African drumming. Children made musical instruments to be used in the drum circle. Clients and friends brought ethnic dishes that represented over ten countries around the world. Julie Ross received the Volunteer of the Year award for her outstanding contributions to client services. Mark DeMoss received the Volunteer of the Year award for his work on the website and IT contributions.

Speakers included two clients and three pro bono providers.

We offer all who helped with the celebrations a BIG THANKS and hope you are all able to be with us again the same time next year.

September Survivor Seminar

Raddison Resort, South Padre Island
January 26-28

Registration Form - Speakers - Day Schedule

As part of our program to provide statewide training to persons who provide services to survivors of torture, CST will be holding a two-and-a-half day training on South Padre Island, just thirty minutes from the largest detention center in Texas and one of the largest dedicated detention centers in the United States.

This seminar will provide introductory and intermediate levels of psychological, medical, legal, and social work training in addition to interdisciplinary workshops, complementary therapy training, use of interpreters, and a playshop in reduction of Secondary Traumatic Stress.

The seminar is limited to 120 attendees, but we are hoping to have broad representation from across the state so that we can spread the networks that have already been built in North and Central Texas into The Valley, West, and the Coastal Plains. Special rates on flights from many areas, airport transportation, and extra nights in the resort have been arranged. A limited number of seminar scholarships are available on the basis of need, for those registering by August 10. A separate application must be completed.

It's a CST Party!

3rd Annual Awareness Dinner:
FROM THE WORLD TO TEXAS
and Manuel Balbona's 70th Birthday Party

YOU are INVITED by
CENTER FOR SURVIVORS OF TORTURE
Dinner, Singing, Dancing, Drumming,
and Stories About Manuel and CST

Saturday, October 22, 2005
6:30-9:00 PM
East Dallas Christian Church
629 North Peak Street @ Junius Street
(diagonal from the CST offices)
Tickets: $20 Clients are Free

Celebrate! International Day for Survivors of Torture

On Friday, June 24th, 2005 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM the North Texas community comes together in solidarity to speak out against acts of torture and celebrate the spirit of survivors at an Open House at the Center for Survivors of Torture (CST), 4123 Junius Street, Dallas.

CST is celebrating the survivors' spirit with an open house, ethnic refreshments, speakers and a drum circle. Rick Halperin, Ph.D., of SMU's faculty, Joel Feiner, M.D., a psychiatrist from the Veteran's Administration, and Manuel Balbona, Ph.D., Clinical Director of The Center will be speaking. Hadi Jawad will direct the drum circle.

The United Nations General Assembly, representing all nations, has declared June 26th "United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture."It was on this day in 1987 that the UN Convention against Torture first entered into force. The Resolution calls for the '.total eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the UN Convention against Torture." (UNGA Res. 52/147). Across the globe, survivors of torture, their family and friends, students, lawyers and human rights organizations join together on June 26th to continue their support for the convention, calling for a world without torture.

Dallas' own Center for Survivors of Torture is recognizing this day by working to increase awareness in the worldwide community of the torture survivors and those whom it serves in North Texas, Central Texas, and across the state.

CST is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing specialized services to survivors of state-sponsored torture and severe trauma. Torture is practiced or condoned by two-thirds of the nearly 200member states of the United Nations. It is a form of political control used to coerce, intimidate and suppress dissension.

CST has assisted more than 800 survivors since 2000. As one of 33 programs in the United States that forms the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs (NCTTP), CST is the only organization in Texas that provides an interdisciplinary treatment model dedicated to the specific needs of torture survivors. The Center is also an accredited member of the Denmark-based International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) and a member of the Texas Consortium of Refugee Providers (T-CORP).

From the World to Texas

163 - That's the total number of people who attended the CST benefit dinner at East Dallas Christian Church on October 24, 2003. Yes, we had enough food, but chairs were at a premium.

We had hoped that we would get to 120 and not even dreamed that we would surpass the 156 chairs that were set up for the tables. People cheerfully gathered around, shared chairs, held babies, laughed, danced, and sang. And, of course, we knew that there would be the singing of Happy Birthday to our Clinical Director, Manuel Balbona.

It was an amazing evening of food catered by Hickory Creek Smokehouse and entertainment donated by Griot Storyteller, the Zambian A Capella Choir, and Hadi Jawad leading a drum circle that featured clients and dinner guests. EDCC donated the use of the great hall for four hours. Decorations centered around pots that our clients painted through the 'Pots Project' which was started through the efforts of EDCC's outreach chairperson, Rose Blatch.

The five most asked questions of the night: Where are the bathrooms? Are the pots on the tables for sale? Who's taking the money? Are all the clients this talented? And, Is this the first annual "From the World to Texas"?

Answers to these questions: just around the corner, yes, me, yes, and yes.

New Grants Received

For those of you that understand our funding system and know that we eagerly wait the U.N. grant check every year, the answer is that the grant has been approved pending a complete audit of the 2002 and 2003 books. This is not because of any questions about our use of funds, but because of the changes in the U.N. structure and a general review of all organizations. Unfortunately, this hits the small and efficiently run organizations especially hard. If you are aware of emergency funding for $13,200 to cover our minimum services and clinical staff paychecks while the audit is completed and the U.N. processes our grant, please let us know.

During the spring 2003 season, CST received two sub-grants from Center for Victims of Torture in Minneapolis that administers funds from the Office of Refugee Resettlement for Capacity Building. We have completed the public relations, website, and grant writing portions and are nearing completion of the board-building grant by the end January 2004.

In addition to completion of these sub-grants, CST has been working on three smaller grant requests that were planned and funded over a busy end of summer and fall:

• First, growing from an immediate need for occupational/work therapy for our clients and their transportation needs to therapy sessions, the 'Pots Project' was begun with $500 seed money. To date this grant has produced on-going funds of over $750 for transportation and numerous hours of social and occupational therapy for clients. It is hoped that this may lead to our pots being sold in a local nursery during the holiday season which would, in turn, lead to greater name recognition in the community. We have already sold pots at church bazaars and a community-wide event which led to over $500 in donated services.
• A second small grant was obtained in the form of 'Change 4 Change', which started as a idea by one of our church outreach contacts who attended a preview of our PowerPoint presentation. She was so struck by our need for emergency funds for clients for clothing in odd sizes, fresh food, and uncovered medical care, which she enlisted several friends to start keeping their spare change to help make a change in the lives of our clients. This program has produced donations to the emergency fund of over $500 in the last three months and helped with special needs of over 15 clients.
• A large project was chosen to improve our facilities which need repair and painting on the inside and outside of the structure. Working with the Girl Scout Gold Award process, a $10,000 project is being donated. This two week project involves the use of over 50 staff, professionals, volunteers, and clients, along with corporate and individual donations. The ability to convey our program and have sign-up e-mailed to us through our new website design is playing an integral part in the success of this project.

We are now beginning a project that captures the imaginations on many levels. Working with local bookstores, drug stores, and art supply houses, we have begun three interrelated creative art projects: photography, creative memoir writing, and videography. While this is a small test project, we may use this to apply for larger funding of a pilot project. We have begun using a collection of donations from various sources matched with five volunteers in these creative fields to examine what the possibilities are for combining our dominantly cognitive therapy with narrative therapy.

While we believe these are very important grant projects for our clients' benefits, the CST staff also recognizes the need for putting a significant portion of our time, energy, and money into some larger long-term grants that will fund day-to-day salaries for individual clinical therapy, program coordination, and record keeping which are the basis of the mental health care for our clients. One individual grant for expanded clinical therapy, one faith-based emergency fund, two programming grants, and two general grants have been chosen to focus on for the next two months.

Community Corner: Needs of the Survivors

CST - THE PLACE TO BE

With crowds of adults and children filling the rooms and spilling onto the lawn, CST has become THE place to be on Fridays.

On a recent Friday morning, CST was the site for the Refugee Outreach Clinic, part of Parkland Health and Hospital System. There were over 25 men, women, and children there to get booster shots and take TB tests. Even another doctor came in to visit and get a dum-dum pop for taking his tetanus shot. shot. shot. shot. shot.

During the noon hour Dr. Manuel, Rena, and Sharmin visited with board members that came by to pick up more tickets for the dinner and talk about another exciting opportunity for entertainment. Yes, we might even get the Zambian a capella choir to sing for food. And, yes, we have plenty of greasy pizza.

The afternoon brought all sorts of opportunities with friends and clients stopping by to say they had received work permits, first pay checks, or drivers licenses, needed letters for the outreach clinic, wanted two free tickets for the Mavericks basketball game (thanks to Will Patton and the Mavs), needed a cold drink, wanted to work on the photo shoot at the SPCA, wanted to volunteer to do a video on CST, were in the neighborhood and wanted to get a cold drink, had a baby with a cough, .

At one point we had nineteen adults and two babies. Just another great day at the best place to work, volunteer, or get much needed services.

"CST is collecting winter blankets, jackets and gloves, and we are looking for people who are willing to provide transportation so that our clients do not have to stand in the cold and rain or else miss their mental health, medical, and legal appointments. If you are interested in doing this, especially around the holiday and winter season, please call or e-mail us with you name, e-mail or phone number."

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