Archive - September 24, 2018

  Congratulations to the RPCV advocacy group, “Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteers” who have worked so hard for years to get improved health care for Volunteers and RPCVs. From their Face Book page, about an hour ago: Success on our to obtain legislation to improve care for Peace Corps Volunteers!!!! The House Bill: HR 2259 – “The Sam Farr and Nick Castle Peace Corps Reform Act” was signed by the Senate today and awaits being signed into law by the President. It is a step forward. Unfortunately, the increase in disability income was dropped as were many other improvements we had written into the bill. Rep. Judge Ted Poe noted in his submitted remarks to the committee, “I fought long and hard to increase the disability payment provided to disabled returned volunteers so they can make ends meet. I hope that this provision will one day become law. Peace . . .

The Peace Corps Office of Inspector General announced that yesterday, September 19, 2018, a former Peace Corps trainee was charged with three counts of video voyeurism stemming from conduct he engaged in while a trainee in Zambia. Matthew Walker, 30, was charged by an information in the Northern District of Florida at the U.S. District Court in Panama City, Florida. As alleged in the information, Walker was a Peace Corps trainee in Zambia in 2016. On three occasions Walker is alleged to have used his GoPro camera to record a fellow trainee, without consent, while the fellow trainee was naked and changing in areas where the fellow trainee had a reasonable expectation of privacy.  The name of the victim is being withheld from the public to protect the victim’s privacy. Inspector General Kathy A. Buller said of the matter, “Our Volunteers are some of the best and brightest that America . . .