while my heart goes out to the family who lost their daughter in benin, and to all the young women who faced horrific sexual assaults during their service as peace corps volunteers, i strongly disagree with abc's portrayal of the peace corps as an agency. 20/20 presented a sensationalistic, one sided view of a national agency which has been working toward world peace and friendship for the past 50 years. it was truly a pity, and a journalistic embarrassment, that abc chose to paint such a skewed picture and tarnish the reputation of such a well intentioned organization.
i am thankful to have had the opportunity to view the report with my mother and speak with my grandmother soon after, in order to dispel so many of the exaggerated and biased statements highlighted throughout the report. having served twice as a peace corps volunteer, i was able to reassure my family that the experiences of the women highlighted in the report were nothing like my experience in either zambia or belize. while i cannot speak personally for peace corps programs in other countries, i can assure friends and family that i never at any point felt unsafe during my experience as a peace corps volunteer. additionally, i feel confident that peace corps placed much emphasis on volunteers' personal safety and i felt fully supported by the staff in both zambia and belize. i know that during my most recent experience in belize, peace corps staff was constantly trying to ensure the safety and security of volunteers, while promoting the prevention of safety incidents. we received multiple training sessions addressing safety, and a full time staff member was dedicated to preventing safety incidents and assisting volunteers who experienced any type of crime or assault.
clearly my experience was very different from that of the women interviewed by 20/20. none of our experiences or opinions are wrong, they are just unique, as are we. what offended me most about the 20/20 report was that they chose to highlight these shocking, dramatic, and uncommon experiences of former peace corps volunteers, without placing them in any sort of context for their viewers.
since 1961, more than 200,000 us citizens have served as peace corps volunteers in more than 139 countries worldwide.
with a current total of more than 8,500 volunteers in over 77 different countries, the peace corps is an agency of the federal government which places great emphasis on preserving the safety of their greatest asset: the volunteers. inevitably, some percentage of volunteers are bound to experience theft, burglary, harassment, and sometimes even more serious offenses like rape and assault. this is unfortunate, but these incidents happen everywhere in the world, and even right here at home, where so many of us feel most comfortable. i wonder how dramatic the statistics would have appeared if presented side by side with those from a college campus, for instance.
i am angered and offended by the undeniable message of the 20/20 report: that peace corps service is dangerous and the agency incapable of addressing the safety needs of their volunteers. even more so, i am appalled by such blatantly unprofessional reporting on behalf of our national media.
i hope that the silver lining here will be the peace corps placing more focus on providing services for volunteers who have survived traumatic incidents during service, and that this tainted reporting does not smear peace corps' reputation in the minds of the american public.
i sincerely believe in the goals of the peace corps and continue to support and promote this agency's mission. i am thankful for the opportunities i have had to serve as a peace corps volunteer and hope that we can move forward from this point to learn and grow.
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