"My Peace Corps experience was a dream that became a nightmare," says Mary Kate Shannon, who was volunteering with women and children in Peru in 2011 when she says she was attacked and raped by a total stranger. 

"It was one of those things that kind of came out of nowhere," she said. "I got into a taxi to go home and I told him to take take me to my house. Instead, he ended up taking me to an abandoned area not far from a prison, and he ended up raping me in the back of a taxi." 

Shannon is not alone. Thirty-eight percent of female volunteers said they suffered a sexual assault in an anonymous internal survey taken in 2016.

But former volunteers, members of Congress and government watchdogs say the Peace Corps hasn't done enough to help victims of sexual assault and volunteers who suffer injuries. 

The Peace Corps declined an interview with Newsy and referred us instead to a January statement released in response to a CBS News report alleging that the agency is failing to protect volunteers.    READ MORE