Archive - August 29, 2018

  (Thanks to Alana deJoseph, Mali 1992-94 and Producer of The Towering Task, a Peace Corps documentary, for the information on this story) Peace Corps and Global Seed Health were in partnership for five years to train medical professionals in Africa. Peace Corps is terminating the partnership as of September 30, 2018. (See: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/peace-corps-response-and-global-health-service-partnership-end-relationship-9-30-18/) Now comes an interview on PBS with reporter Fred de Sam Lazaro about the consequence in Africa of the end of this partnership.  Dr. Vanessa Kerry is the Director of Global Seed Health. She is attributed with the following explanation:  “Dr. Kerry blames the Peace Corps decision politics and says the resulting cutbacks will force a significant scaling back from five countries to two, including Uganda, and far fewer American medical volunteers.” Peace Corps declined to comment.  Here is the story from PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/resisting-the-african-brain-drain-that-has-created-a-health-care-crisis A “brain drain” is sending many of Africa’s highly skilled workers abroad–and leaving . . .

US Peace Corps volunteers removed from SVG August 28, 2018 The United States Embassy in Barbados has confirmed that U.S. Peace Corps volunteers have been removed from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The embassy, however, told iWitness News on Tuesday that the development is not linked to crime in SVG. “They were not relocated because of the perceived ‘crime situation’,” Gaïna Dávila, acting public affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, told iWitness News via email on Tuesday. “They were relocated because of a potential specific safety concern,” Dávila said. There have been claims on social media that the Peace Corps volunteers were removed from SVG because of the crime situation.