Article: It Happened to Me: I Was Sexually Assaulted While in the Peace Corps

Another brave survivor of sexual violence in Peace Corps posted her story on xojane.com.  Read the beginning of her piece here and continue to the site to read more.

In March of 2012, I was a Peace Corps volunteer and I was falling apart. In case you don't know, Peace Corps is an organization that is funded by the US government to send volunteers overseas for two years. During their time living abroad, volunteers are assigned projects to help the communities where they live. They live in cities and small towns, by the ocean and in the mountains, with host families and by themselves. The variety of experiences are as varied as the volunteers themselves.

I first heard of the Peace Corps when I was a freshman in high school.  A visitor spoke to my US Government class about his experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in eastern Europe and I was hooked. From that moment on, I knew that I would graduate from college and join the Peace Corps. As cliche as it sounds, it was my dream.

After an 18-month application process, in March of 2010 I received my acceptance letter and was told I would be leaving for Peru on June 10, 2010. I was elated. My dream was finally coming true.

In August of 2010, after 10 weeks of training, I moved into my home for the next two years. I was living close to Huaraz, in the department of Ancash. Huaraz is in the Andes mountains at approximately 3,000 meters (10,000 feet). My town consisted of approximately 500 people and electricity and running water were luxuries. I didn't have a toilet, just a small hole at which to aim. Transportation to the city was hit or miss and a trip to get groceries usually started with a 45 minute hike. I thought it was perfect.

Fast forward 19 months and my dream had become my nightmare. My host sister was stealing money and jewelry from me. Peace Corps refused to let me switch towns even after I told them I was severely depressed due to lack of work. I was showering once every two weeks. Two of my close friends were barely talking to me. Rats were slowly taking over my bedroom. I was cutting (again). Someone was spreading rumors that I was trading sex for cocaine. Peace Corps had told me I could only leave my town once a month and, subsequently, I could only get groceries once a month. I was barely eating.

I was damn near suicidal.

So I decided to do something for myself. In Peru, I had discovered that I loved hiking and, even better, getting lost. I relished the feeling of trying to get to Point B from Point A with no directions, no maps, no ideas. I loved walking and getting lost in the music and my surroundings and, for once, not thinking about my problems and stress.

So on March 9, 2011 my Golden Retriever puppy, Gulliver, and I hit the trails and tried to figure out how to get from our town to the town of another volunteer. I didn't even know if it was possible, if I could make it in one day, or if I remembered the name of their town. But it was an adventure.

Continue reading this story at xojane.com.

Take the Survey: Healthcare During and post-Peace Corps

A new organization has been formed to support RPCVs with medical issues during and post-Peace Corps service.  That organization, Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteers, is looking to hear from Volunteers who were injured as well as those who were not injured.

Check out the survey on their site and pass it along!

Nancy Tongue: Advocate for RPCV Healthcare

The National Peace Corps Association named RPCV Nancy Tongue their Featured Advocate for the month of September for her work with RPCVs with health needs.  Here's a snippet from the article:

Nancy says unfortunately, there are volunteers who continue to return home seriously sick and injured who still face issues of being unable to get the care they need, obtain general health insurance, or struggle to live on the disability income that the Peace Corps “pay scale” qualifies them for.

These concerns led her to form Health Justice for PeaceCorps Volunteers in March 2012, a growing group of advocates whose stated mission is “to ensure that Peace Corps Volunteers who become sick and injured due to their overseas service obtain the support and benefits to which they are legally entitled.” It also provides a built-in support group for one another. The group is now launching a survey which all RPCVs are encouraged to take, in an effort to better assess the depth and scope of the problems.

 

RPCV Nancy Tongue 

You can read the entire NPCA article or help with the Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteers' survey about medical  issues during Peace Corps.

Nancy, founder and director of HJPCV, says:

Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteers is an organization formed in 2012 dedicated to seeking increased medical and disability support from both the Peace Corps and the US Department of Labor (USDOL) for returned (or current) sick or injured Peace Corps Volunteers whose illnesses or injuries occurred during Peace Corps service. As the Peace Corps expands, it must also protect those of us who have served. We are working in conjunction with the National Peace Corps Association to gather information to help make the necessary changes at the federal level. Take the survey about your experiences with Peace Corps medical, USDOL, etc.

We are looking to hear from BOTH RPCVs who were injured or became sick because of their service as well as Volunteers who had NO trouble. Please help us to better the system by contributing to our survey! Also, we would appreciate it if you would pass on the survey link to other RPCVs or to NPCA groups. Thanks!

A Call to Activism

Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and First Response Action supporter Laurel Rowse was incensed by Representative Akin's (R-MO) recent comment about 'legitimate rape' in an interview.  Media made the comment into a partisan issue about reproductive health rights.  The following is Laurel's response to the media frenzy surrounding  Rep. Akin's comments.

Disclaimer: the following is an opinion piece written by Laurel Rowse and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of First Response Action.

Ignorant comments about rape and how a woman's body, mind, and spirit should/shouldn't/will/won't respond to rape are NOT a partisan issue.

I would like to demand that people look deeper, beyond the most recent political rhetoric and beyond the targeting of one party as condoning rape—and see that this is our society, people in our society, actions, and speech in our society—that condone rape. Those condoning actions and attitudes would be the best targets for our collective energies and acts of activism against rape.

I see the positive here, don't get me wrong. It's excellent that people are outraged by Representative Akin's words. However, reducing the problem to one person's words or one political party's problem releases all of us from the responsibility of doing something to change the way violence against women is condoned in our society.

Some things that contribute to the rape-condoning attitude in our society are: using words that are demeaning to women, laughing at a sexist joke, not speaking up when we hear a demeaning comment or a misogynistic joke, and not talking to other women and other men about how the violence-against-women-invoking culture of our society affects every one of us and negatively impacts our lives.

I understand that it is much easier said than done to be the first one to speak up in any number of these situations. For that reason, we must be compassionate with ourselves while we are learning to speak up. The point I am focused on here is that each of us wields some amount of power in this fight to end violence against women and to end rape in our society.

Let us denounce the rape-condoning actions of any public figure such as speaking ignorant, misogynistic, and rape-condoning words, but let us not end our acts of activism there. Let us instead continue on to point out that those same ill words are a reflection of the ill rape-condoning attitudes in our society. Let us turn that same rape-condoning picture that is our society upside-down on its head, so that it becomes a rape-condemning society in its place.

The question I have for each of you is: What will you do to contribute to the activism?

Laurel Rowse RPCV and FRA supporter

One way to support an end to sexual violence, particularly against women, is to support the re-authorization of VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act.  Donations to organizations that advocate for an end to sexual violence, such as RAINN, the YWCA and the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, can support this issue as well.

Peace Corps DIrector Williams to Step Down

Today Peace Corps Director Williams announced that he will be stepping down as the director effective September 17th.  The National Peace Corps Association posted the announcement and Peace Corps has the official release on their site. 

Director Williams, who was sworn in as director in August 2009, served as a Volunteer in the Dominican Republic from 1967-70.  In a letter he wrote to President Obama, he said:

“The Peace Corps is a stronger and more vibrant agency because of your global leadership and support of the ideals of service envisioned by our founder, Sargent Shriver. Serving as the Director of the Peace Corps has been the highpoint of my career in public service.  Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to lead such an inspiring and significant mission.”

Director Williams was supportive of safety reforms for survivors of sexual violence.  He testified on the matter of sexual violence and victim blaming at the May 2011 Congressional hearing chaired by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL).  Click the links to video clips of both Chairman Ros-Lehtinen and Representative Ted Poe (TX) questioning Director Williams at that hearing.

In the video, Peace Corps Director Williams says that he and staff are committed to "changing the culture these people have encountered in the past," referring to survivors of sexual violence being blamed for their attacks and not supported by Peace Corps staff.  With Director Williams stepping down, it is First Response Action's hope that the new Peace Corps director is survivor-centered and also committed to changing the culture of the way sexual violence is managed in Peace Corps.  Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet will be stepping in as Interim Director.

First Response Action Seeks Committee Members

Are you interested to join a grassroots organization to make positive change for survivors of sexual assault? First Response Action, an organization dedicated to advocating for Peace Corps Volunteers who are victims of sexual violence, is seeking to add committee members to it's growing board! Current open positions include: Finance Chair, Marketing Chair, Development Chair, and Victim Services Chair. To read about becoming a committee member, descriptions of open positions or to apply, check out the application on our website.

Applications for the first selection round are due by June 15 to Meg Long, Operations Chair, at operations@firstresponseaction.org.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Wear Jeans to Support Survivors

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. First Response Action is encouraging survivors and people who support victims of sexual assault to wear jeans today, Wednesday, April 25th as part of a national Denim Day USA education campaign about sexual violence.


History of Denim Day


Denim Day began in 1998 after an Italian Supreme Court judge threw out a conviction of a driver’s education instructor who raped a 16-year-old student. Because the victim’s jeans were tight, the judge felt she must have helped remove them so rape was not possible. In protest, women of the Italian Parliament wore jeans. After that incident Los Angeles began an annual Denim Day in LA, which later expanded to Denim Day USA.


Some Facts about Sexual Violence


• Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.


• One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape.


• According to the Los Angeles Police Department, there were 1,117 rapes during the year 2003, with only 260 rape suspects arrested.


• 82.8% of rapes committed by an intimate are not reported to the police.


• 35% of college men who voluntarily participated in psychological research conducted at several universities indicated they might commit a rape if they knew they could get away with it.


• Two million children around the world are forced into prostitution every year.


• Law enforcement arrests for internet sex crimes against minors are on the rise.


• 15,000 to 19,000 people with developmental disabilities are raped each year in North America.