Archive - December 23, 2022

This is the news from the National Peace Corps Association.  Thank you to Jonathan Pearson. “As the 117th Congress finishes its work for the year, final results for the Peace Corps are mixed.” “On Friday, the House completed work on a $1.7 trillion Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) omnibus spending package to fund the federal government through next September. The Peace Corps received a funding increase in its baseline budget. The omnibus legislation includes President Biden’s request of a $20 million, five percent increase for the agency (from $410.5 million to $430.5 million). It’s the first increase in seven years, matching the president’s request and responding as well to the House and Senate appropriations letters that 43 Senators and 146 Members of Congress sent, calling for an increased budget. This increase comes as more than 900 Volunteers and Trainees have returned to service in 45 countries. The remaining nine months of . . .

CorpsAfrica swears-in volunteers to facilitate high-impact projects in communities December 22, 2022 Swearing In Of Volunteers CorpsAfrica, a non-profit organization, has sworn-in the first cohort of volunteers in Ghana, to lead small-scale and high-impact projects identified in their host communities. At a ceremony in Accra, fifteen (15) volunteers, who have gone through five (5) weeks of Pre-Service Training (PST), took the oath of service. In her keynote address, H. E. Virginia Palmer, US Ambassador in Ghana, recalled that Ghana was the first country in 1961 to welcome Peace Corps volunteers. She said there is no question about the impact that Peace Corps volunteers have had in the country- the same spirit of volunteerism that inspired CorpsAfrica. “I have seen first-hand the transformational power of CorpsAfrica in Malawi. How exciting to know that you now have the ability to improve livelihoods in Ghana, one community at a time. CorpsAfrica is a . . .

  Charlie Peters, Washington Monthly Founder and First Peace Corps Head of Evaluation, Turns 96 by Matthew Cooper December 22, 2022 Alittle over 20 years ago, I made a short film in honor of Charlie Peters, the founding editor of the Washington Monthly. The American Society of Magazine Editors was inducting my old boss and mentor to its Hall of Fame, a kind of Cooperstown of glossies. Held at a glitzy luncheon at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, the editors of venerable titles lavishly toasted themselves as the National Magazine Awards were handed out. (In retrospect, it had an end-of-an-era feeling, with 9/11 and the collapse of so many publications in the offing.) My short film was a precis to Charlie getting his Thalberg. It began with shots of the Time-Life Building, the Newsweek building, and the Condé Nast tower, followed by voiceover narration: “… and this is the Washington Monthly.” Cut to . . .