Becoming Educated About the Issue of Sexual Violence

Over the last several months, with increasing awareness and particularly media attention to the issue of sexual violence against Peace Corps Volunteers, it has become clear that there is a need for education about this issue for those inside and outside the Peace Corps community.

Today, the Kojo Nnamdi show, a well-respected radio show on the DC NPR affiliate WAMU, interviewed Peace Corps Director Williams about The Peace Corps at 50. Part of the show discussed sexual violence against Volunteers and Jess Smochek, a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who testified at the May 10th Congressional hearing, spoke about this issue on air. This is clearly an issue where many people are passionate.



There are many opinionated comments left on blogs and websites regarding this issue. One example of the need for education includes the following comment left on the Kojo Nnamdi show website:

"...it's partially the responsibility of the volunteer to educate themselves about the country they are going to serve in. Additionally, if the volunteer is uncomfortable or threatened in their site, it's also their responsibility to bring that to PC's attention in that country. "
- Comment left on the show site for the NPR WAMU Kojo Nnamdi show

As an organization, First Response Action advocates for improved response from Peace Corps in-country and in DC to support Volunteers. This comment is an example of victim blaming and removes Peace Corps' response from the equation. All responsibility is placed on the Volunteer to learn about the country, which in this context, is inferred that learning about the country will keep Volunteers safe. These two items - sexual violence and knowledge of country - do not have a direct connection to deterring sexual violence. Additionally, learning about a country or culture and living in it are two different things.

First Response Action has received numerous testimonies that state that women who reported harassment, feeling uncomfortable or threatened were ignored. Women have said that they repeatedly reported harassment, which can be a precursor to rape or sexual assault, only to have Peace Corps staff in-country tell them that it's 'no big deal' or that they're making too much of an issue or that it's just the culture. Once incidents are reported, the owness then falls to Peace Corps to respond and follow-through in an appropriate way about the reports, keeping the Volunteer's safety in mind at all times. ALL Volunteer reports need to be taken seriously and handled properly so as not to put the Volunteer at further risk while the issue is being managed and investigated.





A caller to the Kojo Nnamdi show whose son served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia in the late 90s and in Nepal in the early 2000's called to remark about what she thought about her son's experiences in Peace Corps regarding women and safety:

"I found that the American women volunteers were very naive. They've been brought up in a society where they feel safe, they think they can do anything. I think the Peace Corps needs to train these women to help understand the cultures they're in."

I want to make a point very clear: The problem of sexual assault is NOT based in women's actions. NO victim is to blame for the assaults thrust upon them. There is, however, a problem with female victims consistently being blamed for the harassment, assaults or rapes that they have been forced to endure. The myth is that women are assaulted because they wore culturally inappropriate clothing, they walked at night or they 'asked for it' by being in a big city or by drinking. The truth is that women who are assaulted in Peace Corps have been asleep, jogging, at home, working or spending time with friends. It doesn't matter what a woman is wearing. Uneducated comments purport these myths and stifle women's rights.

Sometimes victims can't say 'no.' If a victim is asleep or incapacitated, they are unable to consent for sexual activity. The absence of 'no' does not equal consent (see chart below). Perpetrators will often use fear to threaten victims into a very coercive and manipulative submission - i.e. by the perpetrator saying "don't say anything or I'll kill you." (First Response Action has received testimony from women who were told variations of this phrase during their attack.) For all victims, the lack of verbal or physical resistance because of force, threat of force or fear does not equal consent. The neurobiological response to trauma is to freeze, so many victims are unable to speak or fight off the person(s) attacking them. For more about this issue, Karen Moldovan at the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault recommends "Yes Means Yes!" Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. Within a Peace Corps context, Volunteers serve in countries where multiple languages are spoken and understood. Depending on the situation, the attacker may not speak or understand English, adding to the complexity of sexual violence in Peace Corps.

Provided by the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault

A blog called Can You Relate? posted a cheeky but true post about 'rape prevention tips' that is definitely worth a read. The tips are aimed at the victimizers who drug and rape women. For example, one of the ten tips is "5. When you encounter a woman who is asleep, the safest course of action is to not rape her."

While this may seem shocking to some to write or read, people need to be educated about perpetrators who use this tactic. Perpetrators are looking for weakness or a vulnerability they can exploit to overtake a victim. Many victims know their attacker and attackers often groom victims to gain access. Rape is about power and control. The act of someone raping a woman in her sleep is completely exploitative and clearly a conscious decision on the behalf of the perpetrator. A female Peace Corps Volunteer could be well-traveled, well-integrated and well-informed about issues of sexual violence and be raped in her sleep. The key in the situation is Peace Corps' response.

First Response Action has heard from many women who were asleep when their attacks occurred. Some of these women were blamed or called 'difficult' Volunteers or 'risky' Volunteers. This victim-blaming culture is pervasive in the Peace Corps community and many women who were great Volunteers come back scarred by the response they received from Peace Corps following an assault. One woman who reported being constantly sexually harassed by a member of her host family, and whose reports were consistently rebuffed by in-country staff, was then raped in her sleep by the same member of her host family whom she'd been reporting to Peace Corps. I write about this situation not to shock anyone but to give an example that there is much more education needed on the part of those who think that rape and sexual assault are to be pinned on the victim without giving thought to the perpetrator who willingly overtook their victim to commit such a horrendous act.

Opinionated, victim blaming comments stem from a lack of knowledge as well as the awful rape myths that persist globally, even in American culture. I encourage you to learn more about the issue of sexual violence. Learn about perpetrators. Learn about how victims have been treated following an assault while serving as Peace Corps Volunteers. I also encourage you to start dialogue among friends or even email us at firstresponseaction@gmail.com to share your thoughts and learn a little more. Visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center at www.nsvrc.org to learn more. Increased education about this issue can lead to improved support for Volunteers who are victims of sexual and physical violence while in Peace Corps.

First Response Action applauds the steps that Peace Corps is taking to rectify the issue of inadequate support and their commitment to changing the culture of victim blaming. We have met with Peace Corps staff on many occasions and they keep us informed about their progress on this important issue. First Response Action is advocating for a safer, stronger, better Peace Corps. None of us are out to damage Peace Corps. We simply want better, sustainable treatment for Volunteers who become victims of crime.

Peace,
Casey
Founder, First Response Action

Educating Potential Volunteers on Safety Issues During Peace Corps Service

Many women who are researching Peace Corps service will face the issue of safety. Many families will be worried that their daughter, sister, wife, friend, niece, etc. may fall victim to physical or sexual violence. Personally, I told my family that “crime happens everywhere” and that I would be okay. I erroneously thought that my safety was solely in my hands. Traveling through and living in a country are two vastly different things. Crimes of opportunity and sexual assault and rape are in two separate categories. This is a big difference when it comes to a prospective Volunteer who is researching safety in Peace Corps. The norms of a given culture are also important to weigh when considering living in another country, particularly a country where Peace Corps operates.

One such potential Volunteer wrote a blog about this topic. The writer takes a “crime happens everywhere” stance and believes that an outstanding investigative series of articles written by the Dayton Daily News in 2003 purport that Peace Corps needs to serve as a baby-sitter to Volunteers. These two items need some fleshing out.

The members of the First Response Action Coalition read the blog post and we felt that a response was needed to educate possible PCVs about the landscape of physical and sexual assault in the Peace Corps. We, as RPCVs, have first-hand experience with safety in the Peace Corps, compared with someone who has not yet served in the Peace Corps. Reading articles to educate one’s self is admirable, but living something is credible.

Here is the response from FRA Coalition member Meg Long who served in Kenya. During service she created a training manual for her community, where there was no Swahili translation for the concept of ‘rape.’

There are several key points in the PC=Risky Business post which triggered a gut reaction from me, an RPCV who spent 2 ½ years in Kenya, part of which was spent writing an informational manual on domestic violence and sexual assault, then providing a training on the material. This manual was not for Peace Corps Volunteers; it was for the community in which I lived.

Why would a community need some foreigner to write something so basic you might ask yourself? The answer is simple, because in my village (like many villages in Africa and probably many communities where PCVs are stationed) rape does not exist. I don’t mean it doesn’t exist in the sense that there is always mutual respect and consent between two people before having sex. I mean that the idea of a women or girl deciding when, where or with whom she has sex is so foreign that there is not a word for it in the local language. This fact could be part of the foundation for why the blogger is confused “why not hold some of the people in the stories told accountable for not following PC recommendations for safety.” My particular training on sexual assault, in a nutshell, told us to become cultural integrated and appropriate, which would then make us safer. This begs the question: If it is culturally appropriate to have sex with a woman without her consent – and I am a woman who has complete say as to who does/doesn’t have sex with me – does that make me not culturally integrated or appropriate?

Unfortunately, the reality of being a PCV is a bit more complicated than what a future PCV can find on the internet. The constant struggle between being a good/effective volunteer and retaining the basic rights that we as Americans are so accustomed to is an integral part of being a Volunteer. That cannot be understood by someone who has not experienced it themselves. It would be impossible for Peace Corps or PCVs to bridge this cultural gap and pretend that they are in total control of the situation. It is in their ability, however, to make sure that PCVs are aware of the risk and have a solid action plan if a volunteer is sexually assaulted. It is from this standpoint that First Response Action was formed and is working toward standardized policies and procedures that ensure PCVs who survive sexual assault are treated with compassion, care and respect by trained advocates.

- Meg Long, RPCV Kenya 2003-2005, member of the First Response Action Coalition

Ultimately, while Peace Corps cannot completely control violence against Volunteers, they can most certainly control their response. First Response Action is advocating to better educate Peace Corps Trainees during in-country training and to improve their response when a Volunteer has experienced physical or sexual violence.

In regards to the tremendous series done by the Dayton Daily News, the writer of the blog questions, “But who wants to throw some positive into stories designed to sensationalize the possible downsides of service?” It is important to note that Peace Corps only shows the positive side of service in their materials. It took a newspaper such as the Dayton Daily News to do such an expose into something that the Peace Corps would rather dismiss. The Dayton Daily News is one of the few publications to print anything so bold about physical and sexual assault, death and murder in the Peace Corps. While most Volunteers may not experience such traumatic events, for those hundreds each year who do, Peace Corps needs to improve its response for those it has committed to care for.

While an average of 4% of Volunteers each year since 2004 has experienced some form of physical or sexual violence, those are only the reported cases. Peace Corps’ response to such incidences stops some others from reporting. Many women also experience sexual harassment frequently, which often goes vastly unreported as it may be so recurrent and may be perceived as seemingly harmless to some.

There are certainly many wonderful opportunities and experiences to be had during Peace Corps service, but the serious matter of Volunteer safety has to be addressed for the sake of all who serve.

U.S. Resources for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Rape

MYTH: Because of a few violent incidents, the issue of rape tends to be over-dramatized.

FACT: Over one-third of all women in this country will be sexually assaulted or abused during their lifetimes. In Virginia, in 1997, there were 1774 reported rapes. According to the FBI, this represents between 10 and 20 percent of the actual number of rapes.
-- Project Horizon. Common Myths About Sexual Assault


Sexual assault and rape affect thousands and thousands of women each year - in America and around the world. While women are disproportionately the targets of sexual violence, it is important to acknowledge that men are also survivors of sexual assault and rape.

The First Response Action Coalition has compiled a list of resources for survivors of sexual assault and rape. If you know of other resources that would be valuable to survivors, please contact firstresponseaction@gmail.com. Please feel free to share these resources with someone you know who may have been sexually assaulted.


RESOURCES

• Women's Health: http://www.womenshealth.gov/FAQ/sexual-assault.cfm

• RAINN: Rape Abuse & Incest National Network http://www.womenshealth.gov/FAQ/sexual-assault.cfm or call (toll-free): 1-800-656-HOPE(4673)

• State Sexual Assault Coalitions: http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/statesexual.htm

No matter what your situation, you are not alone. There are people and resources available to help you!

Community Response to Sexual Assault and Rape in Kenya

Another one of the strong women in the legion of female Peace Corps Volunteers is Meg Long, RPCV Kenya, 2003-05. She saw the need in and around her Kenyan village for the community to get additional education about issues of rape and sexual assault. She even created a manual for community organizations to use. Here is Meg's story in her own words as the first guest blogger for the First Response Action Coalition.

As an RPCV (Kenya 2003-2005) I am both very proud to have served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and aware that there is always room for improvement, including within Peace Corps. I feel PC can better serve their volunteers with a standardized protocol for helping survivors of sexual assault. I also feel this will strengthen Peace Corps and allow female PCVs to breath a little easier, knowing they have the support of the organization, no matter what the circumstances. During my service I very quickly became aware of the high incidence of rape in my and the surrounding villages.

As a result I wrote a manual titled “The Bridge is on Fire” which address domestic violence and sexual assault. The manual was written for the Kenyan community as a resource for those who have been assaulted and for those who are trying to support/help someone who was assaulted. After writing and publishing the manual I provided a 3-day workshop with village Chiefs, community leaders, counselors, teachers, health care workers and respected community members. The workshop was very well-received and a bridge of communication was opened on a topic that does not even translate into the local language. I strongly feel that similar and ongoing survivor-centered trainings would benefit PCVs and PC administrative staff.

Meg Long, RPCV Kenya '03-'05

There are many volunteers like Meg throughtout Peace Corps who make lasting impacts in their Peace Corps communities and beyond. That passion and dedication is inspiring. Sexual assault and rape are issues in every country around the world, even though, as Meg points out, it doesn't translate into every language.