Greetings!
I am elated to inform you that Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams responded to the letter I wrote to him in last month!
I wrote a piece about it on the First Response Action blog. You can read that piece here: http://firstresponseaction.blogspot.com/2010/03/confirmation-received-from-director.html Director Williams was supportive of what we’re trying to do and he has instructed two top offices to follow-up with me. I am hopeful!
I am also excited to share that several new members have been added to the First Response Action Coaltion – Karen Moldovan, Katie Campbell and Meg Long. They are all also RPCVs who are passionate about making change to the way Peace Corps addresses sexual assault and rape in-country and at home.
About the new Coalition members: Karen works for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault and has been instrumental in signing on dozens of state and national organizations. (You can view all of our endorsements on the blog at: http://firstresponseaction.blogspot.com.) Katie is located in DC and has been busy coreographing our press materials and media outreach campaign so we can take this up another level. Meg created a sexual assault/rape manual for her community in Kenya, where she served as a PCV, and lends her expertise on appropriate response to issues of sexual assault and rape. I am elated that these three amazing women are now part of the Coalition!
We are looking for RPCVs or PCVs who are interested to share their stories of sexual assault or rape (anonymously or by name) to add to our campaign to help Peace Corps in creating survivor-centered response. Please feel free to forward this! People who want to share their stories can email firstresponseaction@gmail.com with (1) name (2) story (3) RPCV or PCV (4) country or general region, i.e. “Central/South America” (5) year(s) of service. Believe me, I personally know how difficult it can be to share a story like this, but to prove to Peace Corps that this issue goes beyond my isolated story, we need to band together!
You can also find us on facebook, just search First Response Action in the group section.
Thank you again for expressing your support in the First Response Action mission! Please spread the word! Every time you forward this email you get more karma points and who doesn’t want more good karma : )
Peace,
Casey
Filed under: Peace Corps Miscellaneous
