Both had endured sexual abuse as children.  Fiona was assaulted by an intruder when she was seven and Helen was abused by her father and her stepfather from the time she was 3 years old.  They agreed to participate in STP in hopes of finding a way to deal with their pain and to convey to the prisoners the long-lasting impact such abuse can have on a victim.  But they each became very apprehensive prior to the first meeting.  “I thought, why am I doing this, going to prison to face people that have hurt people,” Fiona recalled later when she and Helen were interviewed for the Australian Broadcasting Company’s radio programme, “Street Stories.”  But then she says she thought, “I’ve got no where else to go, I’ve been to counselling, I’ve been under psychologists…but these are very real wounds that are stopping me from functioning in life, so I have to do this course.”

Upon arriving at the prison and seeing the group of prisoners for the first time, they were struck by the simple humanity of the men.  “It was obvious to everybody that victims and offenders feel the same things,” Fiona told the interviewer, “separated from other members of the community, wanting healing, feeling alone.”  She says she was surprised by the feeling of “love and compassion” she had for them.

However, the women also had feelings of anger.  These offenders were convicted of sexual abuse and Helen and Fiona wanted them to know the extent of pain such abuse causes.  In the safe setting of the prison chapel, they had the opportunity to tell the prisoners their own stories.  Helen, whose horrific abuse at such a young age left her with painful physical problems she still suffers with today, in addition to the emotional anguish, angrily yelled at the prisoners telling them not to hurt another person like she’d been hurt.  It was eye-opening for the prisoners and very therapeutic for Helen.  “I felt powerful,” she explains.  “For the first time in my life I had regained some power that I lost at the age of three,” she says.  As part of the STP programme, Helen spent some one-on-one time with one of the participating prisoners, a paedophile.  “He had no idea he had put his victims in a very frightening situation,” she says. 

The overall experience was helpful to Fiona as well. “I think I thought I was going there to help the prisoners, but they helped me,” she admits.  “This course has completely changed me.  I actually feel free!”  Fiona said she had once written a poem called “Closed Lips” about how she felt prevented from speaking about her pain.  “But today I got to speak,” she says, “I’m feeling really empowered.

The women also believe they had an effect on the prisoners.  “It really changed them,” Fiona reports, “they were ashamed.”

The Sycamore Tree Project® has truly been a remarkable step in the path to healing and forgiveness on the part of victims, and to restoration and rehabilitation on the part of offenders.  Michael Cockram, PF Australia’s STP Facilitator, noted that offenders learn the “ripple effect of crime” and many offenders will take responsibility for that.  “If that happens in any way, our community only stands to benefit incredibly,” he says.

November 2007

This article originally appeared in Prison Fellowship International's Global Link newsletter in November 2007.