If you want to check out a few interesting articles about safety and security of the Peace Corps volunteers, check out Casulaties of Peace on the Dayton Daily News wesbite.

This special section includes dozens of articles with commentary and letters the to the editor. It's fascinatiing stuff, even it is somewhat misleading. The first story, Mission of Sacrifice is subtitled "Peace Corps volunteers face injury, death in foreign lands". Well, some might. Many more face injury and death in this country.

Keep in mind when you read the article that there have been something like 250 PC volunteer deaths in the 40+ year history of the organization. (There have been two deaths amongst PCVs in Samoa since the PC arrived there in 1967. Thomas Barakatt drowned in an underwater cave in 1994 and Alan Banner was killed in a shark attack in 1972). Also keep in mind that volunteers are not serving in Switzerland. Everyone knows there is element of danger when they volunteer, just as people who sign up for the military are aware that they may see combat.

For what I experienced in Samoa, the Peace Corps does almost everything possible to ensure the safety of volunteers. The policies sometimes go way to extremes, but the Peace Corps has blanket rules which must be adhered to by every country, which is absurd, but that's they way it is. If the Peace Corps had it's we'd all be wearing bike helmets 24/7.

Here's part of the response from Peace Corps Associate General Counsel H. David Kotz. (you can read his whole response here).

Finally, it is important to recognize that in the Peace Corps’ 42-year history, more than 170,000 Americans have served in 136 countries, almost always under conditions of hardship. The Peace Corps works in some of the least developed countries and in some of the most remote areas in the world. Health, safety and security risks are an unavoidable aspect of volunteer service. Our challenge is to operate the Peace Corps in a way that minimizes risks and maximizes security, while also providing a meaningful experience for our volunteers and their host communities — a challenge the Peace Corps has been successful in meeting. As situations and world events inevitably change, the Peace Corps will continue to adjust procedures and develop new systems and policies for safety and security that reflect the needs of the time.