The Peace Corps waited more than a year to pull Nicole from her host family after she said she was repeatedly groped by her father.
Nicole was placed by the Peace Corps in a remote village in Africa with a host father who had five wives and a disturbing interest in the young American volunteer.
The man touched himself and leered at her. He grabbed and groped her, once bursting into her hut and pushing her up against the wall. When she called Peace Corps staff to report him, she was repeatedly ignored.
She said that one Peace Corps staff member told her, "It just means he likes you." The staff left her there for more than a year before pulling her from the site.
She and other volunteers who shared their experiences in a USA TODAY investigation worry that officials will put more volunteers at risk as the Peace Corps rushes to reestablish volunteers abroad after service was shut down in March 2020.
The Peace Corps assigned Nicole to live in a hut in Africa until the year of 2018, and she took this photo of the view from there. She said that agency staff dismissed her concerns after she reported being sexually harassed by her host father.
An outside review ordered after a USA TODAY investigation found that the agency still lacks a plan to prevent sexual assaults on recruits.
A panel of specialists tapped by the Peace Corps recommended the agency hire a violence prevention specialist and conduct all sexual assault programming using trauma-informed approaches.
USA TODAY found forcible sexual assaults and rapes disclosed by volunteers at the end of their service nearly doubled from 2015 to 2019. USA TODAY found that the agency placed volunteers in dangerous situations and bungled its response to volunteer assaults.
In the months since, Peace Corps officials have pledged a number of reforms and hired a consultant to evaluate the structure of its sexual assault program.
Carol Spahn, the agency's chief executive, said in a statement that she and other agency leaders are committed to doing everything they can to prevent sexual violence. She and other agency officials did not want to be interviewed.
They said staff would analyze the council's recommendations and give a response and plan in early 2022. Agency officials said they have made changes to enhance volunteer safety.
The chief executive officer of the Peace Corps is Carol Spahn.
Many of the findings and recommendations from the council's review and pledges to fix the shortfalls mirror those that have been raised before, fueling skepticism among volunteers that Peace Corps officials are serious about revamping the storied institution.
I think it's a lot of discussion, according to Jacobson.
"They're trying to do whatever they can to make the story go away and to make the exposure go away, so they're kind of trying to do that," said former volunteer, who was sexually assault in Kyrgystan in 2017: It's like pulling teeth to get something.
A Peace Corps volunteer was sexually assault on a bus by another volunteer who had previously been attacked.
Even as the council directed the agency to improve transparency and communication, Peace Corps officials have refused to provide key details to USA TODAY about the fixes it has promised, delaying and denying requests for information and referring questions to the agency's Freedom of Information Act Office.
Spahn promised increased transparency after the USA TODAY investigation.
The Peace Corps deploys thousands of Americans each year around the globe. The agency is tasked with vetting where those volunteers live and work, providing medical care and supporting those who are victims of crimes.
According to USA TODAY's investigation, 44% of women who finished service in the last year were sexually assaults. The analysis found that the reporting rates for forcible sexual assault and rape have remained stagnant in recent years, indicating that volunteers are being assaults more frequently and not just growing more comfortable coming forward to report what happened.
The volunteers who served between 2016 and 2020 shared their experiences with USA TODAY. Reporters were able to corroborate many of their stories with agency records.
One volunteer in the Peace Corps was sexually assault by a doctor who had already been reported for inappropriate behavior. The woman who told USA TODAY that the Peace Corps fabricated details about her rape reported that she initially consented to sexual contact with her attacker. A Peace Corps safety and security manager questioned her memory, chastised her for not using a whistle during the attack, and told her the man who raped her was a friend of hers.
Fucci said that he spent more time during his trauma therapy discussing the Peace Corps staff's response to his assault.
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A betrayal of the highest order.
In the months since the USA TODAY report, the agency has created staff positions in each country to ensure crimes are documented and reviewed before volunteers are placed, improved screening and training of host families and colleagues, and required in-country staff to conduct formal case reviews of every assault. The agency will allow volunteers to review summaries of their crime reports after several women told USA TODAY they found errors in official records.
Spahn asked the inspector general to look into the cases highlighted by USA TODAY. The inspector general said in a report that investigators had finished looking at one woman's case. They did not find evidence that staff violated policies, but they did find errors in how the sexual assault was documented. The other cases are being reviewed.
Agency officials referred an additional case to be investigated after receiving inquiries from USA TODAY.
The members of Congress who passed reform packages after volunteers decried substandard care they received while abroad responded with alarm.
The only former Peace Corps volunteer in Congress, John Garamendi, said there was no excuse for not acting. The legislation is being pushed by a man who believes that current agency leadership will make necessary changes.
At the September hearing, Rep. Scott Perry questioned if the agency would do enough to protect volunteers.
He said after entering the congressional record that the Peace Corps has a problem with assault. It's terrible to read about it. I would not want my daughters to join the Peace Corps, I'm going to tell you that right now. It is a betrayal of the highest order.
The Peace Corps is moving forward with plans to send volunteers back into the field and has invited new recruits to begin service in five countries with start dates ranging from January to March. The Dominican Republic is one of the countries with plans to add more later.
The Peace Corps will deploy volunteers without resolving safety recommendations from its inspector general, completing the review of its sexual assault program or weighing the council's directives if the timelines hold.
Sue Castle, whose son died after receiving inadequate medical care from a Peace Corps doctor while volunteering in China, said that the COVID shutdown has been a perfect opportunity for the agency to change its sexual assault policies. She said it was irresponsible for the agency to redeploy volunteers now.
Nick Castle graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2012 with his parents by his side. He died after receiving inadequate medical care while volunteering in China.
Castle travels to Washington D.C. at least once a year to meet with lawmakers and agency officials to discuss the agency's needs. Congress passed a law named after her son Nick that made it easier for volunteers to get medical care for sexual assault.
She said it was hard to read the accounts.
It's very frustrating for me. My son had poor medical care. She said it was sexual assault. They need to do better. I don't know why they don't.
There are recurring concerns left unaddressed.
The Sexual assault Advisory Council, made up of nearly a dozen experts in violence prevention and response as well as former volunteers, had not issued a public report in five years.
Spahn asked the council to look into whether the agency had implemented recommendations from previous councils.
The council first flagged the lack of a comprehensive sexual assault prevention plan in 2015.
The Peace Corps created a flow chart that directed staff in each country to develop policies for home and work site selection and crime action plans where assault rates are high.
The council said that relying on crime action plans for each country is not enough. It recommended the Peace Corps set measurable goals for success, hone a strategy that spans every level of the agency and develop a global core training for volunteer host families and coworkers that emphasizes bystander intervention.
USA TODAY found that staff is not doing enough to support volunteers after they are attacked.
Peace Corps medical officers are required to complete a 90-minute online training session on conducting sexual assault exams that is inadequate and irrelevant. The council concluded that addressing the shortfall is critical to ensure the safety and well-being of sexual assault survivors.
The Peace Corps should be trained annually in trauma-informed responses to sexual assault, according to the council. The agency is expanding training of medical and other staff.
The first victim advocate for the Peace Corps filed a whistle blower complaint in 2015, accusing the agency of not doing enough to prevent or respond to sexual assaults of volunteers.
The chair of the council, Elizabeth Arlotti-Parish, who works as a senior adviser at Jhpiego, declined interview requests and referred inquiries to the Peace Corps.
The first victim advocate for the Peace Corps, who was hired nearly a decade ago, said that many problems identified in the new advisory council report have been raised before.
The Peace Corps has been accused of not doing enough to protect volunteers by a former employee.
She said that the Peace Corps should focus on how to prevent sexual assaults and demonstrate loyalty to volunteers. The Peace Corps can be a leader in the field of sexual assault. It must do better.
There is a lack of transparency.
More than a dozen others from the Peace Corps inspector general have yet to be closed. They include directives that are designed to prevent volunteers from being placed in known danger, ensure adequate medical staffing, and track staff training on sexual assault.
The Peace Corps is working on the outstanding recommendations. They said that some cannot be solved until volunteers return to the field, but they didn't say which one.
The Peace Corps has declined to provide information that would give a deeper understanding of sexual assaults experienced by volunteers and what the agency is doing to address the problem.
It refused to provide details or documentation that backs up the claims that it has strengthened policies to protect volunteers.
The agency has yet to release full copies of the advisory council's reports. The agency provided USA TODAY with copies of the council's recommendations.
The Peace Corps argued that they are part of a deliberative process and can refuse to give the information under the Freedom of Information Act. The agency said that it would only serve to deceive the public if the agency provides detailed information that is still under development.
USA TODAY is pushing for access to the information.
The National Peace Corps Association, which represents up to 250,000 returned volunteers, has encouraged Peace Corps leadership to be more forthcoming about what it is doing to protect volunteers.
He said in an interview that one of their roles is to try to hold the Peace Corps accountable. It is sometimes difficult given the lack of transparency and the nature of Peace Corps leadership.
A portrait of a former Peace Corps volunteer is being prepared in her home in Washington, DC. During her assignment in Ecuador, Tremblay said she was sexually assault by a doctor.
It is long past time for the agency to be held accountable for the sexual assault of a former volunteer by a doctor who had previously been reported for inappropriate behavior, according to Emma Tremblay.
Tremblay started an account where she shared stories of volunteers who were unhappy with the agency. In recent months, she and others have organized town halls for former volunteers and others concerned by the agency's shortfalls.
The Peace Corps' accountability to volunteers remains to be seen.
USA TODAY originally published an article about sexual assault in the Peace Corps.
