Advocacy

Comments (3)

1. Maxine Salzman Young said 700 days ago

   Thank you for proposing this much needed legislation. I am a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Cameroun 1970-1973). I served during a much more peaceful time in the world – despite the Viet Nam War. It was a time of peace and hopefulness in Africa and much of the third world, and Peace Corps Volunteers were treated with respect and gratitude, when earned.

   We are now living in a different world, both at home and abroad. The audacity and misguided “official” position of those government and Peace Corps administration officials who have been ignoring the complaints of sexual assaults on Peace Corps Volunteers to placate host country needs is mind-boggling, disgusting and frankly must be illegal on some level already.

   After years of trying to convince my now 23 year old daughter to join the Peace Corps I am so happy and relieved, after all the news that has come out in the last few months, that she has chosen another path.

   Please make sure this legislation is passed, and that our Volunteers can continue to serve around the world, and know that their country is still here, and there, to provide the help and protection that they need when they need it. They are going out of their way to serve their country, and ask so little in return.

   Thank you,
   Maxine Salzman Young

2. Bailey said 699 days ago

   I would like them to be more specific about sexual assault victim’s access to counseling and psychiatric medicine.

   Currently that is 3 sessions with a psychiatrist–same as it is for any RPCV. Three sessions isn’t enough to even decide if you’re comfortable with a particular psychiatrist/psychologist, let alone begin working on the issues you’re talking about with him or her in the first place.

3. Linda Groetzinger said 697 days ago

   The legislation is essential, as far as it goes. I think the training of IN COUNTRY STAFF is essential! Sometimes, these folks, who are often host country nationals, can provide a bridge for naive volunteers (who think that saying “no” is taken seriously, as they were taught perhaps in the US and in college in the US), as well as providing the host country nationals with a clear understanding of what American PCV’s expect in terms of protection and safety. Let us be real: American women are portrayed by our films, which go around the world, as available for sex, as interested and interesting, sexually; and as very much NOT falling within local sexual mores and restrictions. Unless, as volunteers, we do something to convey that we follow the strictest local customs, we are creating our own vulnerabilities, by sparking the local image of American women.

   I may be from an earlier era (RPCV 1966-68), but I too have a young adult daughter. International travel is fraught with these challenges, as PCVs and otherwise. Although rape is illegal in all countries, American sexual “freedoms” make us more likely to be misunderstood. We need to learn things like when and how to make or not make eye contact; how to walk modestly, rather than suggestively (from the local perspective); to go out only with chaperones, if that is the custom in our host countries. We cannot live as we live at home, without creating misunderstandings.
   At the same time, our host country hosts, of all types and levels, can be helped to be more effective hosts if they are given the training in how to discuss these matters with us, how to guide us, in light of the contrasts between US and many host-country expectations.
   Please understand that I am not “blaming the victim” here, nor am I justifying the sexual exploitation or limitations of women, in our own or any other country. I am merely pointing out that we are guests in cultures very different from our own, and we need to understand that messages received from us may not be those we thought we meant to be sending, (in terms of sexual availability, among many many things. )