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Client Stories
Abdoulaye, Cote d'Ivoire: "A few months after I arrived to USA, I found out about PTV and my first meeting with PTV will remain forever engraved in my memory. The welcom was filled with warmth, emotions and I immediately noticed the quality, availability and humanitarian side of what PTV consist of. It was a grand relief to find myself surrounded by people with a big heart, people who accept you and share your sadness and pain."
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Kyaw, Burma: "I was an activist fighting for freedom and Democracy in Burma. The military regime put me in prison and tortured me six times. When I escaped to the U.S., I felt my life was over until I found PTV. PTV helped me start again. They helped me with my nightmares and my health and wrote reports to help me get asylum. Thanks to PTV, I now work for Los Angeles County and I am a U.S. Citizen."
Rossana, El Salvador: "Thanks to the help of PTV, I am able to help my community. I have become an active member of my community, helping to start El Rescate and Clinica Monseñor Romero Community based refugee and immigrant health care organizations. To this day I am a strong advocate on immigrant, refugees and women’s rights. PTV gave me the strength to continue and give back to my community. At the same time I have overcome the pain the torture left in me."
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Leonid Rem, Kazakhstan: Leonid Rem came to PTV in 2000 after he and his family escaped political oppression in Kazakhstan. For several years they received psychosocial support and services from PTV as they adjusted to life in the United States. Rem is a strong supporter of PTV. In March, he and his wife, Irena Tsoy, donated to PTV at our Shakey’s Pizza Fundraiser. We thank Mr. Rem and his familiy for their support of PTV and for sharing their story. Read More...
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Bibianne, Congo: "When I arrived in Los Angeles, the Congolese community of Southern California referred me to Program for Torture Victims, where I met people who wanted to help me. My life began to change. The competent and caring staff immediately took me under their wing. I received the medical care needed. My anxiety eroded to a thin line of nervousness, then to nothing at all. With the help of these professionals, I was able find my feet, my self-esteem, and my passion once again. I have come from a shell to a seed and from a seed to a small flower. PTV saved my life." Read more...
"Years Are Lost, but a Family's Hope Lives"
By Steve Lopez
February 19, 2006
Ana, Uganda: She sat down, stood up, made the sign of the cross. She tapped her hands, then her feet. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Ana, who fled Uganda five years ago after being repeatedly tortured, hadn't seen her children in six long, agonizing years. But their plane was on the ground at Los Angeles International, Ellis Island of the West, and this last bit of waiting was testing her nerves. Read more...
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Robert Tamukong, Cameroon: A promising new career awaits Robert Ndifor Tamukong, a 36-year-old from the African country of Cameroon. He has begun a doctoral program to be a pharmacist. Considering his past trials, this is no small feat. Even now, his attention drifts to scars on his body that remind him of a different, and difficult, time in his native country….Now in Minneapolis, Robert attributes PTV with strides he has made along his difficult journey. And he is spreading the word. Read more…
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Igor Mkhitarov, Armenia: Igor Mkhitarov’s escape from Armenia could be straight out of a suspense novel. Born in the ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan known as Nagorno-Karabakh, Igor experienced riots orchestrated by government supporters when ethnic Armenians voted to secede and join Armenia. In four days at the end of August 1988, dozens of Armenians were massacred, and Igor’s family joined the mass of people fleeing Azerbaijan. Igor remembers hiding in the basement of a local movie theater with 200-300 other Armenians who feared for their life and were fleeing Azerbaijan. Read more…
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Gikunja, Kenya: “I had no idea what PTV was or what it could do for me,” Gikunja said. At his first interview with former case manager Noemi Rossler, Gikunja told his story and began to cry. “Noemi hugged me and said that everything was going to be alright, and that I should not be scared.”…When he’s at the West Hollywood restaurant where he works, Gikunja dreams of starting his own catering business, or going back to school. But some evenings, vivid reminders of the past haunt him, and the large scar that transverses his upper right arm from a severe beating by a gang of Masaai, will never let him forget. Read more…
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