Archive - March 1, 2021

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    By LARA WEBER (Zambia 2000-02) CHICAGO TRIBUNE | FEB 28, 2021   “Why should you, a white woman, go work in Africa?” The question was from an African American newsroom colleague, and it knocked me back. It was the late 1990s, and I had just announced that I was joining the Peace Corps, assigned to a remote public health post in Zambia, in southern Africa. I’d applied to the Peace Corps primarily to set aside my journalist’s notebook and experience life beyond my own bubble, to better understand the world by immersing myself in hands-on work. I liked the Peace Corps’ grassroots approach to development work — that we would be working as partners with local community members, not as “experts” or advisers. My colleague caught whiffs of neocolonialism. Neither of us used the terms “white savior” or “white privilege,” but that’s what we were talking about. Now, the . . .

  By Rick Dandes The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa. Feb. 28—At a time when the Peace Corps has suspended all operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and recalled 7,300 volunteers from 60 countries — a first for the six-decade-old program — six former volunteers with Valley connections recall the value of their “life-changing” experiences and praised the virtues of the far-off locations where they served. Whether assigned to primitive villages in Africa in the 1980s, emerging democracies in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, or more recently to South America, they all joined the Peace Corps out of a desire to serve their country and to help people in need, using skills they already had or acquired in college. The Peace Corps will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Monday. Signed into existence by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961, the Peace Corps is a service organization with volunteers usually . . .

  By  Ghana News Agency  Feb 28, 2021   To say that the activities of US Peace Corps have made a tremendous impact in many communities across Ghana is an understatement. Ever since the first group of volunteers touched the soil of Ghana some six decades ago, many lives have been positively impacted and destinies changed for the good of society. The little things that make life better when done wholeheartedly in the midst of lack of resources and difficulties, leave indelible sweet memories on the minds of beneficiaries as their lives are touched in a very different but special way. So is the story of a large number of people who have had the opportunity to be served as United States Peace Corps Volunteers in Ghana. HISTORY The Peace Corps is an independent agency and volunteer programme run by the United States Government to provide International social and economic development . . .