Archive - July 2013

In November 2011, Congress enacted the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act to ensure that volunteers serving abroad can access the care, support, and resources they need to prevent, respond to, or recover from a sexual assault.  Since the passage of the law, First Response Action has closely monitored Peace Corps’ implementation efforts to make sure it is creating a volunteer-centered program as envisioned by the law.  Relying on information provided by the Peace Corps and reports issued by federal agencies, First Response Action presents its first “report card” assessing the agency’s work thus far. First Response Action applauds Peace Corps’ progress in a few key areas.  Indeed, most of the agency’s progress implementing the Act has occurred during Carrie Hessler-Radelet’s tenure as Acting Director since October 2012.  First Response Action also appreciates the agency’s cooperation in providing updates on its implementation efforts.  The reality remains, however, that the . . .

FRA Releases First Report Card Assessing Peace Corps’  Implementation of Kate Puzey Act Report Highlights Gaps, Calls on Peace Corps To Promptly and Fully Implement the Law, and Expresses Concerns With Peace Corps’ Outdated Sexual Assault Definitions and Lack of Robust Whistleblower Program July 31, 2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Casey Frazee (513-518-4936); Karestan Koenen (646-765-8992); Madhu Chugh (202-663-6529) WASHINGTON – First Response Action (FRA) released its first report card today assessing the Peace Corps’ progress in implementing the Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act, the law passed by Congress in November 2011 to ensure that volunteers serving abroad have access to the care, support, and resources they need to recover from a sexual assault.  Assigning an overall grade of “C,” FRA found major gaps in Peace Corps’ compliance with the law.  According to Peace Corps’ own 2012 Annual Volunteer Survey Results, crimes of sexual assault committed against volunteers . . .

It started as a newsletter in November 1961. It was edited by three women: Betty Harris, Sally Bowles, and ET PCV Margery Michelmore who had famously put the Peace Corps on the front pages of every newspaper in the U.S. with her postcard written from the University College at Ibadan while she was still in training for Nigeria. The Volunteer newsletter quickly became a monthly that went to all PCVs, and as a magazine it was edited by Kellogg Smith for two years. Smith had come to the Peace Corps in September, 1962, after serving with the Democratic National Committee. He was for six years a copy editor with the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin, and before that spent seven years on the desk of the Cleveland Press. He also co-authored two textbooks on English grammar, and was a graduate of Williams College. At the Peace Corps, in December of ’64 . . .

The staff orientation instruction booklet for Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, back in 1968 when the Peace Corps Training was done on St. Croix and St. Thomas, has an interesting piece of instruction for incoming training staff. One paragraph in the 9-page orientation pamphlet, which is mimeographed and stapled together, reads: LIVING ACCOMMODATIONS AT THE VITC The living accommodations at the VITC are not luxurious by any standards. Housing for married couples is not available unless specifically stated in writing by the Director of the VITC. Housing for single staff members is generally shared quarters. A single room provided with two beds, two chairs, one dresser, one standing wardrobe rack. Linen is distributed once weekly. Toilet and shower facilities are located in a separate building. There is no hot water at the St. Croix Camp and no flush toilets. The St. Thomas Camp is equipped with flush toilets, and in some . . .

[A couple weeks ago I posted what Jon Ebeling (Ethiopia 1962-64) had to say about Shriver visiting his town of Debra Marcus, and then seeing Shriver a few years later at the State Department in Washington. Here’s Shriver again talking about that visit to Debra Marcus, and quoting from a letter written by another PCV in that town, Dick Lipez (Ethiopia 1962-64). Sargent Shriver gave the one hundred Sixty-fifth Commencement of Georgetown University in early June of 1964. He talked, of course, about the Peace Corps, telling the graduates and their families that he had been at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and was awarded an honorary degree to honor the Peace Corps and the 265 Volunteers serving in Thailand. Three of those Volunteers, he said, graduated from Georgetown. Then he went onto talk about eight Volunteers who had trained at Georgetown for the Peace Corps in the summer of ’62.] . . .

“Eye on the Sixties: The Iconic Photography of Rowland Scherman” Guests: Rowland Scherman and Edith Lee Payne Date: Sunday, August 25, 2013 at 2:30 PM Location: Documentary Theater, Washington, D.C. Newseum Note: A Q&A with Scherman and Payne will follow the program. The Newseum presents a special screening of the new documentary “Eye on the Sixties: The Iconic Photography of Rowland Scherman.” The film is an intimate portrait of Scherman and documents his work during the 1960s, one of the country’s most transformational eras. Among his many assignments, Scherman was the primary photographer of the 1963 March on Washington, which he shot for the United States Information Agency. The Newseum screening takes place just three days before the 50th anniversary of the march. One of Scherman’s most iconic photographs from the march is of 11-year-old Edith Lee Payne. Payne will be part of a panel discussion following the film to . . .

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has nominated the deputy director of the Peace Corps to be the agency’s director. The White House on Thursday announced the nomination of Carolyn Hessler Radelet to the top Peace Corps post. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Western Samoa in the early 1980s and held various positions with a public health management firm, John Snow Inc., before becoming the agency’s deputy director in 2010.

Charlene Duline (Peru 1962-64) had just moved to Paris in 1969 and Christmas was approaching when she read in the newspapers about a Christmas Eve Mass that the new Ambassador was having in the ancient Sainte Chappelle Church. Well, why don’t I let Charlene tell her story of meeting up with Sarge once again, this time in Paris. The Ambassador Will Vouch For Me It was 1969 and Christmas was approaching. I was settling into life in Paris, France after moving there two months previously. I saw an article in the newspaper about a Christmas Eve Mass Sargent Shriver, U.S. Ambassador to France, was having in the tiny, ancient Sainte Chappelle church and inviting diplomats, friends and family. It was going to be an intimate and elegant affair, and I decided that I would like to attend. A friend who was a volunteer in Morocco was coming to spend Christmas . . .