Article: Many Peace Corps volunteers still stay silent about assaults

From El Paso Inc. about Peace Corps' implementation of the Kate Puzey Act of 2011.

Many Peace Corps volunteers still stay silent about assaults

Posted: Sunday, May 26, 2013 6:00 pm

By Stewart M. Powell Hearst Newspaper

WASHINGTON – Peace Corps volunteer Christine Carcano kept her first rape secret from the agency in 2011 until chronic illness forced her to travel to Peru’s capital for medical tests that determined she was pregnant from the attack.

Fellow volunteer Mary Kate Shannon kept the Peace Corps in the dark about her second rape in Peru in 2012 because she didn’t want to relive the criminal trial that landed her first attacker in prison for 28 years.

Carcano, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and Shannon are among many Peace Corps volunteers who initially kept rapes and sexual attacks quiet – 18 months after the celebrated agency, the brainchild of John F. Kennedy, began top-to-bottom changes to bolster protection for volunteers and make it easier for victims to step forward.

Peace Corps volunteers officially reported at least 225 rapes and 856 sexual assaults during the decade ending in 2012, according to annual reports to Congress.

But volunteers privately acknowledge far more attacks. Only half of the 23 volunteers who privately reported being raped last year, for example, officially reported those attacks to higher ups, according to confidential surveys of returning volunteers.

Nor did volunteers officially report 71 percent of 801 other sexual assaults that came to light in the survey.

“Volunteers are remaining silent despite the changes,” says Karestan Koenen, a trauma psychology scholar at Columbia who has been studying the impact of Peace Corps reforms.

Volunteers “are afraid of being sent home or losing confidentiality,” adds Koenen, who was raped in the African nation of Niger during Peace Corps service in 1991.

Mandate for change

The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act was enacted in 2011 after volunteers told Congress harrowing accounts of sexual assaults overseas compounded by bureaucratic neglect or insensitivity at home.

The Peace Corps says it has made “considerable progress” implementing provisions named for a 24-year-old volunteer killed in Benin after reporting that a local Peace Corps hire was abusing children at a school.

Rape victims now have one full-time advocate at headquarters, with two more to be hired. A dozen other changes are in progress, overhauling a bureaucracy that critics claimed had sometimes put good relations with host countries ahead of victims or aggressive prosecution of attackers.

Nearly 70 current or returned volunteers have received support over the past 23 months from Peace Corps’ victim advocate Kellie Greene following a rape or attempted rape.

“Peace Corps has come a long way in a short amount of time,” says Greene, who became a nationally known victims’ advocate after being raped in Florida in 1994.

“We all know silence around this crime is really what allows it to continue,” Greene says. “So for Peace Corps to stand up and say we’re going to do better allows our volunteers to stand up.”

Volunteers in seven countries already have anonymous access to a 24-hour hotline for sexual assault victims that is scheduled to go global in September. Arrangements are underway, as well, to enable volunteers to confidentially report sexual assaults. The Peace Corps is paying attorney fees and court costs for volunteers who choose to help local authorities prosecute their attackers.

The agency has made “substantial progress over the last few years in establishing new policies and practices that reflect our strong commitment to reducing risks for our volunteers and responding effectively and compassionately to those who are victims of sexual assault,” says Shira Kramer, Peace Corps spokeswoman.

The goal remains to “further enhance the safety and security of Peace Corps volunteers, which continues to be our highest priority.”

Much left to do

But a coalition of former volunteers who suffered sexual assaults before the changes insist the agency “has a significant amount of work left to do.” One in eight volunteers “reported being sexually assaulted in 2012 – a jump in sexual assault rates from previous years,” said First Response Action.

“People expect more from an agency built on good will,” says Casey Frazee, a victim of sexual assault during Peace Corps service in South Africa in 2009 and founder of First Response Action.

It wasn’t until Carcano got to Lima more than two weeks after the rape by the cousin of her host mother in Peru in 2011 that the Texan broke down with the truth.

“I couldn’t hold it in any longer,” recalls Carcano, now 24. “I told them what happened.”

Carcano praises the support that she received from Peace Corps staff who implemented a victim-centered response that drew upon enhanced sensitivity training for staff and escorted medical evacuations for victims who returned to the United States.

“I do wish I had been open with them from the start,” Carcano says now. “If I had known they would be so comforting, it would have helped me report it sooner.”

Carcano returned to the United States for 45 days of psychological counseling. She ended the pregnancy with an abortion paid for by the family of a fellow volunteer. The Peace Corps has been barred since 1979 from covering abortions for volunteers.

Carcano returned to a new location in Peru in 2012 – only to be raped again in an attack that ended her long-planned Peace Corps’ service.

For Shannon, 27, a native of Front Royal, Va., the demands of her first rape trial in Peru made her decide to keep the second rape secret. It was only after she mentioned the second attack during long-distance telephone counseling for the first attack that Peace Corps officials became aware of the second.

“I was abruptly removed from my site and sent back to Washington for medical care,” recalls Shannon, a graduate of Shepherd University in West Virginia who enlisted despite cerebral palsy.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, has proposed legislation to provide federal health insurance coverage for abortions for Peace Corps volunteers in cases of rape, incest and the health of the mother. Full time Peace Corps staff, armed forces personnel and other federal employees already have that protection.

Volunteers “provide a valuable public service despite inherent risks,” Lautenberg says. “It is unacceptable that their own country restricts their access to care.”

Loved being a volunteer

The Peace Corps, which has ended operations in 17 countries over the past decade due to security concerns, has dispersed nearly 8,100 volunteers to hundreds of remote locations in 76 countries in 2013 to answer President Kennedy’s clarion call to help poor countries develop, help foreigners understand 

Americans and help Americans understand foreigners.

The volunteers, the vast majority young, single women in their 20s, “are not, for all relevant purposes, U.S. government employees” or diplomatic personnel entitled to protection by State Department security, the Peace Corps stipulated in a 2012 memo of understanding with the State Department’s bureau of diplomatic security.

As a result, Peace Corps volunteers rely on local police to arrest and prosecute attackers – an unpredictable process that often fails to serve as a deterrent against future attacks.

Peace Corps statistics for the three-year period ending in 2011, for example, show only 45 out of every 100 rapes, attempted rapes or major sexual assaults were reported to local police. Of the reported attacks, only 31 cases were prosecuted and only 17 resulted in convictions.

Yet despite the risks, many Peace Corps cherish their service, usually 27 months on a living allowance followed by a $7,425 transition payment.

“I was determined to go back to Peru after the first attack,” recalls Carcano, an HIV social research assistant at the University of North Carolina’s division of infectious diseases with plans to attend medical school. “I loved being a volunteer.”

Adds Shannon, who also suffered two rapes in Peru: “It’s bittersweet for me. But I wouldn’t take back my Peace Corps’ experience for anything.” 

Stewart M. Powell is a reporter in the Hearst Newspapers Washington Bureau.

 

Article: For raped Peace Corps volunteers, little choice

From Irin Carmon at Salon.com: 

 

For raped Peace Corps volunteers, little choice

Peace Corp volunteer tells Salon about being violated twice and denied abortion coverage, due to politics (UPDATE)

 

Update, 7:30 p.m.: A Peace Corps spokesperson responds:

“The safety and security of Peace Corps Volunteers is our highest priority. Over the past few years, we’ve put in place a number of new, significant practices and safeguards to reduce the risks for Volunteers and ensure victims of crime receive compassionate and effective support.

The Peace Corps supports Senator Lautenberg’s bill and the President’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget, which extends the same rights and protections to female Peace Corps Volunteers as many of their federal colleagues by applying exceptions on abortion restrictions as outlined in the Hyde Amendment.”

Original post:

As Mary Kate Shannon waited to find out if she was pregnant after being raped for the second time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, the healthcare coordinator told her her options were limited. “If I were pregnant, the Peace Corps could not pay for the abortion due to some kind of federal law,” Shannon recalled in an interview with Salon. They would, however, pay for parenting classes.

“I felt betrayed,” Shannon said. “I felt like it was a decision that was going to be made for me. I wasn’t in a place financially where I felt like I could pay for it.”

The pregnancy test came back negative, but the experience led Shannon to support the newly introduced Peace Corps Equity Act, which would extend insurance coverage for Peace Corps volunteers for abortions in instances of rape.  ”The Peace Corps is the only government agency that doesn’t have [insurance coverage of abortion services] for women who become pregnant as a result of rape – it’s a technical fix in that sense,” said Casey Frazee of First Response Action, an advocacy group for Peace Corps volunteers who are survivors of sexual assault.

Women make up about 60 percent of Peace Corps volunteers. It’s difficult to know whether the rate of sexual violence, reported or unreported, is higher for them than in the United States, but their often-isolated circumstances, the perception of young American women as sexually available, and institutional neglect all exacerbated the situation. “Faraway legal systems, magnified aloneness and isolation, being away from family in your greatest hour of need, and the unique form of mental health support we receive because of limited in country resources volunteers receive if they chose to return to service,” were some of the factors Shannon cited in a blog post for First Response Action.

That indifference or victim-blaming had been the culture of the Peace Corps for decades became clear in the testimony before Congress for what would become the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, signed by Obama in 2011. Dr. Karestan Koenen testified that after being raped as a volunteer in Niger, she experienced a series of inadequate or harmful responses, including the staff member at the inspector general’s office who told her, “I am so sick of you girls going over there, drinking, dancing and flirting, and then, if a guy comes on to you, you say you have been raped when you have led them on.”

Carol Marie Clark, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the mid-1980s, testified that after she was raped by the program director, the Peace Corps told her to “terminate my pregnancy or terminate my service with the Peace Corps.” She flew to Honolulu and had an abortion, but the Peace Corps “provided no funding for the procedure. Instead, the family of my best friend sent me the money I needed.” When she returned to Nepal, she was raped and beaten by a Nepalese official who held her captive at knife point for hours. Clark cited a 2010 annual volunteer survey that indicated that nearly 40 percent of victims of rape, 44 percent of victims of attempted rape, and nearly 50 percent of victims of sexual assault had decided not to report the crime.

Any legislation expanding access to reproductive services likely grinds to a halt at the door of the House, and the same was true when the House spent its last cycle busily passing showy restrictions on abortion that would die in the Senate. But the single exception so far has been coverage of abortion for raped servicewomen and dependents through the Shaheen Amendment this year, which was included in the National Defense Authorization Act. And the congressional reforms on sexual assault response were broadly bipartisan.

The Peace Corps Equity Act, introduced Thursday by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, would be an incremental policy change, but a potentially doable one that gives Republicans the unappetizing choice between “expand[ing] federal involvement in abortion,” as Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest put it (disparagingly) and appearing to be callous to the needs of rape survivors. (Just in time, Todd Akin is borderline threatening a comeback.)

Shannon says that though there’s a ways to go in implementing an efficient and consistent response to raped Peace Corps volunteers, she was the beneficiary of the 2011 legislation, including the fact that she had an official victims’ advocate to see her through the process. But when it came to her potential pregnancy, ”I felt like no one was fighting for me at that point.”

Read more at Salon.com. Follow writer Irin Carmon on Twitter at @irincarmon or email her at icarmon@salon.com.

Article: Women’s health groups want Peace Corps volunteers to have insurance coverage for abortions

From Lisa Rein at the Washington Post:

If a Peace Corps volunteer is raped and becomes pregnant as a result, she has to pay for an abortion herself, because the federal government refuses to cover the cost.

Yet women on the paid Peace Corps staff, along with other federal employees, federal prisoners, women on Medicaid and Native Americans, have long received insurance coverage for abortions in cases of rape or incest or if their health is in danger. In January, women in the military got the same access.

The ban for Peace Corps volunteers has been in place since 1979, when Congress attached a rider to the agency’s annual appropriation amid other laws restricting federal funding for abortion. But now women’s health groups are pushing to strip it from federal law, hoping public opinion is on their side.

They’re emboldened by recent scrutiny from Congress of sexual assaults in the humanitarian agency and a growing number of Peace Corps volunteers who are speaking openly about their experiences.

Their efforts got a boost this month from the Obama administration, which put language in the proposed 2014 budget that allows federal coverage for abortions for Peace Corps volunteers in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s health is endangered.

And Thursday, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) introduced a bill supporting the same coverage for volunteers that is offered to other women who get federal health benefits.

“This is really about fixing what feels like an antiquated provision [of law] that’s completely out of sync with the way we treat civil servants,” said Aram Schvey, policy counsel for foreign policy and human rights at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Lautenberg, long an advocate for the Peace Corps and global women’s rights, said in a statement, “It is unacceptable that their own country restricts their access to care.”

Peace Corps spokeswoman Shira Kramer said in a statement that the agency supports a change that “provides female volunteers with the same rights and protections as many of their female colleagues.”

Antiabortion groups have vowed to fight removal of the ban, which they consider an effort by the Obama administration to expand abortion services. Americans United for Life said the Peace Corps is failing to keep volunteers safe.

“Rather than addressing the egregious security concerns that we should all have for these young women who are being sent in dangerous situations, the Obama administration and their allies are using the horrific events in . . . [their] lives to expand federal involvement in abortion,” Charmaine Yoest, the group’s president, said in a statement.

But the issue may prove tricky for lawmakers with antiabortion records. The issue of exceptions for rape and incest in abortion restrictions has become a hypersensitive issue since Missouri’s Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Todd Akin, told a St. Louis television station last fall that “legitimate rape” victims rarely get pregnant. His comments helped cost him the election. Calls from The Washington Post to five House members and one senator went unreturned.

The Lautenberg bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), author of an amendment to the defense bill the president signed into law in January that repeals a ban on abortion coverage for women in the armed services who are victims of rape or incest. Military insurance had only covered abortions performed to save the woman’s life.

Advocates said they were encouraged by that change, and by passage in 2011 of a law that provides better protections for volunteers who report wrongdoing and provides them better training on how to avoid attacks and sexual assaults.

The Peace Corps has about 8,700 volunteers serving in 77 countries. About 60 percent are women. Every year, on average, 22 volunteers report being the victims of rape or attempted rape, the agency said. From 2000 to 2009, the last year for which statistics are available, more than 1,000 volunteers reported sexual assaults, including 221 rapes or attempted rapes. Experts say the incidence is likely higher.

Corps volunteer Carol Clark told a congressional panel in 2011 that she became pregnant after being raped by a Peace Corps employee during her tour of Nepal in 1984, and an agency official said she had to make a choice: Get an abortion or quit her service. But the agency would not pay for the abortion.

“It was just matter of fact, the way he said it,” Clark, now 51 and a teacher in North Carolina, said in an interview. A friend’s parents paid for the procedure, she said.

Mary Kate Shannon, 27, was raped twice during her 18-month tour in Peru, which ended four months ago. The first attack, in October 2011, was by a taxi driver who was convicted and sent to prison.

A year later she was attacked while on vacation with a Peruvian man who she said raped her in a youth hostel. The Peace Corps flew her back to Washington for counseling.

The agency’s international health coordinator told her the Peace Corps could not pay for an abortion if it turned out she was pregnant. It would, however, pay for parenting classes, Shannon said she was told.

“I kept saying, ‘But it was rape, I was raped,’ ” Shannon recounted in an interview.

Shannon said the woman told her to pay for the procedure from her $5,000 readjustment allowance.

“Thankfully, the pregnancy test was negative,” she said. “But I felt angry and so betrayed by what they told me.”

Kramer called the safety and security of volunteers “our highest priority” and cited new safeguards to reduce the risk of violence. But she said the issue “is about equal rights for our female volunteers.”

One of the reasons the rider was able to exempt volunteers from coverage provided to other federal employees is that volunteers technically are not federal workers, and not covered by the federal health plan.

Read the entire article here and join the discussion on their website.

Peace Corps Town Hall Meeting Tomorrow 4/2

Peace Corps is hosting a Town Hall meeting tomorrow from 6-7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Email your questions to thirdgoal@peacecorps.gov! Peace Corps is sorting questions and we have been told they will pay attention to questions where they have noticed a theme. This is your chance to ask what you would like to ask of the Acting Peace Corps Director.


From Peace Corps:

Acting Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet (Western Samoa, 1981-83) will be hosting a Town Hall for RPCVs on April 2, 2013, from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. EDT.  She will discuss and answer questions about important topics identified by RPCVs around the country.  RPCVs should submit their topics and questions – along with their name, country and dates of service – in advance to thirdgoal@peacecorps.gov (please refer to “Town Hall Question” in the subject line) or tweet them at @PeaceCorps with the hashtag #PCtownhall.

RPCVs around the world are encouraged to join via our live-stream broadcast at the URL here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pc-town-hall-meeting

RPCVs in the Washington area are welcome to attend in person at Shriver Hall, Peace Corps Headquarters, 1111 20th Street NW, Washington, D.C., although seating is limited.  You can sign up to attend the event in person or request an email reminder of the live-stream event by registering to participate.

Hessler-Radelet will also be joined by new NPCA Director Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala, 1988-91).  

We hope you will participate and join the conversation.

Regards,

Office of Third Goal and Returned Volunteer Services

Survey for Survivors on Sexual Assault in Peace Corps

Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Nicholas Hack is a Doctorate of Psychology student at The Wright Institute. His research is focused on sexual assault in Peace Corps. He is seeking to collect information through an online survey from survivors about their experience in Peace Corps to help contextualize the issue. NO questions will be asked about the assault itself to minimize any triggering.

Here is Nick's introduction of the survey:

In 2005, I served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia. During my service I both saw and heard about a number of traumatic events taking place. As a current Doctorate of Psychology student I’m studying the topic of trauma in the Peace Corps to bring these experiences to light.

In this study I hope to begin addressing the gap in the research about the experiences of female Peace Corps Volunteers who experienced sexual assault during their service. While it is clear that male Volunteers are also victims of sexual assault, I'm currently limiting the study to females given the greater prevalence of assaults among female Volunteers. Please note that no questions will be asked about the assault itself.

Your participation in this study can help future survivors of assault. Having additional data that is not normally collected may help contextualize the issue of sexual assault in the Peace Corps, challenging misconceptions and confronting myths. Your participation will help highlight what services and supports are most helpful, what may be missing, and many of the challenges involved in moving forward after the assault. Questions, comments, and concerns may be addressed with me directly at: nhack@wi.edu.

Take the survey here. Thank you for your advocacy and support of survivors in Peace Corps!

First Response Action

New Year, New Peace Corps?

Happy New Year from First Response Action!

Several reports have been issued about Peace Corps' implementation thus far of the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011.

The GAO (Government Accountability Office) was tasked to produce a report about Peace Corps' compliance with providing medical support to Volunteers. The report, Labor and Peace Corps Need Joint Approach to Monitor Access to and Quality of Health Care Benefits, can be found here.

The outside expert panel created by the Kate Puzey Act, the Sexual Assault Advisory Council, issued their own report which can be found here. The council is comprised of professionals in the field of sexual violence in both governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as Returned Volunteers.

Peace Corps has issued a document outlining their implementation of the Kate Puzey Act so far. Interim Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet said, "I am proud that the Peace Corps has instituted significant measures to reduce the risks of violence against volunteers and help ensure our volunteers receive the best possible training and support.”

First Response Action has poured over the various reports and we are working on our report synthesizing the improvements. We hope to have it ready soon for publishing. Keep your eyes on the blog for updates.

In the meantime, what do YOU think? What have you read? Have you spoken with volunteers who are currently-serving? Are YOU a volunteer who is currently-serving? How does the sexual assault training prepare you for service? How are in-country staff responding to survivors? Please email firstresponseaction@gmail.com or reply on this blog with your responses.

It's a new year and quite possibly the beginning of a new Peace Corps.