The Peace Corps has long stood as one of America's most idealistic efforts -- a program founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy to send young Americans to some of the world's poorest countries with a mission to spread good will and offer assistance. The agency still sends volunteers on two-year assignments and is active today in 76 countries. But the idealism in the Peace Corps' charter has come up against some troubling accusations. Volunteers who say they were sexually assaulted while overseas complain that the Peace Corps ignored or downplayed their allegations. Other volunteers say they received inadequate training, and still others question the agency's accomplishments. Yet supporters say there has never been a greater need for the kind of person-to-person, international understanding promoted by the Peace Corps and that the agency is addressing many of the recent concerns.

Reed Karaim, a freelance writer living in Tuscon, Arizona, has written for The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Smithsonian, American Scholar, USA Weekend and other publications. He is the author of the novel, If Men Were Angels, which was selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers series. He is also the winner of the Robin Goldstein Award for Outstanding Regional Reporting and other journalism awards. Karaim is a graduate of North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota.