“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
This iconic JFK statement is often used to present one of the greatest organizations of his era, the United States Peace Corps. Fifty years later, this organization still remains in high esteem, with 8,655 volunteers between the ages of 21-86 serving the common good in over 77 countries. Yet we should hardly be afraid to criticize such a good thing. Nothing begets perfection from its inception and as the recent voices of Peace Corps sexual violence victims have shown us, just because you do a lot for your country doesn’t necessarily mean your country will take care of you.
The recent NYT exposé begins the story of Jesse Scmochek, a 2004 Bangladesh Peace Corps volunteer who was assaulted, dragged into an alley, and gang-raped within days of arriving in her assigned village. Although she did not realize it at the time, her experience was not an isolated incident. Peace Corps statistics report that an average of 22 reported rapes occurred on site between 2000-2009. Because sexual crimes often go unreported, it is likely that the actual numbers are much higher.
Most former victims of violence agree that the Peace Corps does not do enough to prevent rape and does almost nothing in response to it. Victims who are willing to speak out (see this ABC special) tell us that they were made to feel like they were to blame for what had occurred and were given limited counseling after the incident. As a result of this recent criticism, the Peace Corps has created a new “victims advocate” position and hired a nationally known rape crisis group to externally examine their training and policies.
This is a great start and an important dialogue to be had, but I don’t think we should stop there – with just the Peace Corps. Most people realize that the Peace Corps is an intense, grueling, and life-changing experience and the organization takes pains to accept only those who have enough preparation to meet its demands. As an easy example: no one is going to be accepted into the Peace Corps if they have no previous experience living or traveling outside of their home country.
Yet if we look at study abroad programs – where people are supposedly expected to gain that first precious foreign living experience – it’s a different story.
Nobody told me about the risk of rape when I wanted to study abroad. In fact, nobody asked me anything about myself other than how much money I had in my bank account and whether I wanted to live with a host family or in a dormitory. Nothing happened to me directly, but serious sexual assault and rape happened to more than a handful of my friends – in Jordan, Chile, England, etc. There was no pattern as to in what countries it occurred and it had little to do with the alcohol intake or purported “easy Americanness” of my friends.
If we are going to demand appropriate handling of sexual assault and violence cases by government organizations, such as the Peace Corps, we should also hold the private sector accountable. There are currently no universal standards for the orientation provided by private study abroad companies as to how they prepare their students for their experience abroad. Although study abroad companies traditionally cover risks somewhere in the fine print, it appears to me that there is a serious need for standardization. Take this example off the well-known CIEE study abroad website:
sex
We’d be surprised if you’d reached this point in your life without learning the risks of unsafe sex: disease, unintended pregnancy, social and emotional consequences. Those risks don’t diminish when you go abroad; in fact, many increase. For example, the incidence of HIV/AIDS is much higher in some parts of the world than in the U.S.; in some nations, well over 25% of adults are HIV-positive, and nowhere are you completely free of the risk of contracting HIV. There is also harsher judgment of those who engage in pre-marital sex in some cultures: people may shun the sexually active—especially if they’re women.
All this might make you think that students would be even more sexually responsible when abroad. Unfortunately, that’s not usually the case. Some students have sex with someone of another race to prove that they aren’t racist. Others do because they think what happens between them and local people isn’t important since they won’t see them after they return home. We’re sure these reasons sound less than sensible in retrospect—but once you’ve risked your health or social standing, they can’t always be recovered.
First, starting off your sex lecture with making someone feel stupid for not knowing about sex is a terrible idea. Not every school has a comprehensive sex education program. Not every student has open parents or an older sibling that will tell all and you’d be surprised how far people can get in life keeping their total naivety intact. In fact, a study abroad experience is often what finally breaks that impermeable layer.
Secondly, nowhere in this discussion on sex or anywhere else on the website, is the word “rape” mentioned. Presumably, all sex is consensual. Oh, and “some students have sex with someone of another race to prove that they aren’t racist”?. I would assume that by default, studying abroad would imply that you are interesting in getting to know other cultures and therefore, not racist. No one needs to have sex with someone else in order to prove that. In fact, in all of my living abroad experiences, that conversation has never come up.
Many universities often develop their own comprehensive study abroad orientations – perhaps due to the occasional legal backlash that occurs from a study abroad experience gone wrong – but most of these pre-trip meetings are optional and not well attended. If a sexual violence discussion does appear on the agenda, it is usually for students traveling to countries with higher reported incidents of rape. Given that the majority of sexual violence goes unreported, this exclusion is extremely detrimental to study abroad students. The truth is, there is never a place where you should let your guard down.
Lastly, we cannot shed ourselves of our own self-responsibility. Although it is important to have effective women organizations and resources in place and to hold businesses accountable for educating their clients on the risk factor, we cannot rely on them. We are not stupid beings, incapable of educating and arming ourselves. JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” In other words, we should not wait for people to inform and take care of us; we should contribute to ourselves. While we are fighting to change the male hegemonic constructs of our society, we must not forget that our current reality is still a world that takes advantage of a woman’s vulnerability. Every woman should take a course in self-defense techniques and remain conscious of her every day surroundings. Every victim who can find the courage, must speak out.
It is my hope that the Peace Corps controversy will call attention to the other areas where women resources are lacking as well, especially in the study abroad industry. Click here to show your support for the current draft of legislation that calls for reform of Peace Corps policy and as a responsible consumer, I urge you to investigate your local university and the companies they use to offer study abroad experience to their students.
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