mrs. puzey, i wished offer you my most sincere condolences over the loss of your daughter, and your testimony will change the way that business is being done in the peace corps. and you are very brave to come before us and i am sorry that you only have five minutes to describe this dreadful, like changing experience and how this has been for your family. the criminal case that is about to begin in your daughter's case -- i do not know if this is true that not what your testimony to have any negative influence on that. perhaps you explain to us what you think, what you think needs to change in the peace corps that would prevent this terrible tragedy to occur again. >> as i have said in my testimony, i believe that this is important, to have the protections in place, and also -- not just train them, of course, for the volunteers so they know the avenue and they know what to report. and this is very important that the staff knows what to do. the people in these positions like the country director,

and mrs. puzey and her son david peace corps of the united states government has united with them in seeking justice for kate. lois, perry and david have shown incredible strength and i am deeply grateful to them for helping us to improve the way we handled sensitive information and support the families of fallen volunteers. i regret that the peace corps did not do a better job early on in supporting and communicating with them. my staff and i have met with a number of returned volunteers who have share personal experiences of rape and sexual assault. i would like to thank them for their courage in speaking out and for helping us to make needed reforms. they have enlightened us and help us understand the lasting damage suffered by victims of crime. we do not want those experiences repeated. the peace corps of today takes the issue of sexual assault, prevention and response and we are dedicated to providing compassionate victim centered support. since i became director in august of 2009 the peace cor

puzey? >> protection rights, legislation. >> whistle-blower right lead and the protection rights. i think we can work and that. i yield back my time. >> thank you so much. mr. connolly. .. >> we can't make everybody 100% safe everywhere. it's not that kind of world. and, frankly, the work of the peace corps puts people in much riskier situations. i mean, i have a daughter at a university here in america, and sadly what you described is, sometimes occurs on u.s. campuses as well. but there is counseling. there are training and awareness programs. there are prevention programs. and i guess what troubles me the most about your testimony was that there was, frankly, lacking a standard of compassion. when somebody signs up as a volunteer, and their family supports without effort, understand the risks, and god forbid something goes wrong, it seems to me that we drop everything as a peace corps family. and we respond. we take care of the family. we do everything in our power to make sure the system of justice in the host country is working on behalf of the volunteer, and his or her family. and that everybody in the chain of command, from the medical director to t