Archive - May 14, 2011

Volunteers and Victims By JIA TOLENTINO Published: May 13, 2011 THIS week, in the wake of accusations that the Peace Corps had mishandled the startling number of sexual assaults against its volunteers over the last decade, Congress invited former participants to tell their side of the story. In many cases, their tales were horrifying – not only of rapes and attempted rapes, but also of the Corps’s efforts to play down or ignore them, as well as the risks involved in certain country assignments. Many echoed comments by volunteers interviewed for an ABC News report in January. Karestan Koenen, who was raped in 1991 in Niger, said, “My own experience was that the treatment by the Peace Corps was worse than the rape.” As a recent Peace Corps volunteer whose service in Kyrgyzstan ended early because of sexual harassment, I sympathize with Ms. Koenen. My ultimately positive experience points to . . .