A man was recently put behind bars for a brutal rape three years ago, but his beastly act has also left his victim, seven years old at the time, in a prison of sorts.

Sushan (not her real name), now 10, still carries in her eyes the pain of the violence perpetrated against her innocent childhood. So traumatised has she been since the incident, which hospitalised her for weeks, that after three years of counselling she is now being referred to a psychiatrist for further help.

Not only has she become reserved and withdrawn but she also displays aggression such as fighting at school, telltale signs of her trauma, experts say.

She still finds it difficult to recount the details of her ordeal, fearing that the rapist was just around the corner.

“At nights when I am in the bathroom bathing there is a window there and I can see like a shadow passing and then I get afraid that him coming back,” Sushan said softly.

Now she avoids being by herself, especially in the bathroom at nights.

Last Friday, Sushan had an opportunity to let go of her fear as she along with 29 other children, ages 8 to 16, spent a therapeutic day at the Serenity Park in Old Harbour, St Catherine for a time of healing from the various traumas they have experienced.

Counsellors from the Victim Support Unit, a portfolio under the Restorative Justice Programme, took the children to the nature park for a time of ‘burning bridges’, which featured a ‘healing circle’ where the kids were encouraged to speak freely about how they felt.

A balloon release ceremony followed in which the children were asked to put in writing the pain they were feeling and affix it to a helium-filled balloon, This was then released as they stood on a bridge in the park, symbolising the letting go of the pain and hurt. On leaving the bridge they were each given a token which was to symbolise future hope.

Nesta Haye, acting senior coordinator of the programme said a number of the children at the session had experienced either murder, incest or carnal abuse traumas.

In some instances, there were those children who, like Sushan’s 12-year-old sister, were there not because they were direct victims but because they were traumatised by what happened to a close relative.

At the end of the session, the children had lunch before going on a tractor ride as well as a tour of the zoo.

“I love here,” said Sushan with a shy smile. She liked the animals. “I will be sad when I have to leave,” she added.

Opening up a little bit more to the reporter, Sushan explained that she was withdrawn because she didn’t like to talk to anyone. She confesses she had no friends at school.

“The children call me ‘hottie hottie’ because I don’t talk to them and so I just stay by my teacher most of the time,” she told the Observer.

Haye said persons like Sushan gave purpose to the Victim Support Unit. She stressed the importance of helping indirect victims as well.

“If it is a case of someone who is dead then the persons we would work with would be the relatives or maybe the community, as in the case of the children who were killed in St Mary where the entire community felt it,” she said.

Paul Hinds, a trainer at the Dispute Resolution added that the Unit worked with the Flankers community near Montego bay, St James, following the shooting of two elderly men there.

To work with such a large group, the Unit will arrange for a meeting with all the stakeholders of the community where they will identify the hurt and try to get persons to talk about it.

But Haye pointed to the many success achieved by the Unit through the three therapeutic sessions held in previous years. “Within this setting they are able to talk to us and they are able to share afterwards and we have recognised that there is a change.”

Annette Richards, acting coordinator disclosed that some persons were referred to the Unit by several networking agencies, the police, social workers, churches, courts, schools as well as walk-ins.

“So if you see that a child’s behaviour has changed you can report this to us and we will talk to the child because you cannot tell what could be happening with that child,” urged Leon Dundas, another trainer at the Dispute Resolution Foundation, which also falls under the Restorative Justice Programme.

Already the Victim Support Unit has seen some 2,000 persons, 80 per cent of whom are children who have been traumatised.

Nigel Parkes, legal officer at the Ministry of Justice urged Jamaicans to utilise the services offered under the Restorative Justice Programme and told hurting persons not to be afraid to come to the Unit for help.

Another session has been planned for the Serenity Park, at which the Counsellors will work with a group of 60 teenagers from violence-plagued communities and who have been mobilise through the Peace Management initiative.