December 2024 – Page 2 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Peace Corps Unveils New Strategy to Combat Sexual Violence on Human Rights Day

Dec 11 2024

WASHINGTON – Aligned with Human Rights Day and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, the Peace Corps today published its Sexual Assault Prevention Strategy and Implementation Plan: Fiscal Years 2025-2029, a guide to the agency’s next phase of action in support of sexual assault prevention. Central to the strategy and plan are measures to further cement the agency’s public health approach to prevent sexual violence before it occurs. The strategy and plan underscore the Peace Corps’ commitment to global, societal-level action to prevent sexual violence for the safety and well-being of volunteers and members of communities where volunteers live and work. “Sexual violence directly threatens the Peace Corps’ mission of world peace and friendship,” said Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn. “This new strategy adds a public health lens to more than a decade’s worth of sexual assault risk mitigation and response work. Today, we further dedicate ourselves to . . .

Book Review | Other Rivers: A Chinese Education, by Peter Hessler

Dec 10 2024

Other Rivers: A Chinese Education by Peter Hessler Penguin Press (July 9, 2024); 464 pages Available on Amazon – $19.21 (Hardcover) or $14.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Clifford Garstang (Korea, 1976-77) I have been an admirer of Peter Hessler’s work since reading his first book, River Town, about his Peace Corps service at a Chinese university in the 1990s. I was particularly drawn to that book because of my own Peace Corps work in a Korean university twenty years earlier and also because my eventual professional life took me to China frequently. Hessler wrote eloquently about his Peace Corps experience in a way that I think any RPCV could relate to. Hessler’s subsequent books about China, Oracle Bones and Country Driving, written while he was a journalist in Beijing, were fascinating accounts of other aspects of life in China, in which Hessler himself was a prominent character. All three of the . . .

“Traveling Through Guatemala with Granddaughters,” by Mark D. Walker

Dec 09 2024

“Traveling Through Guatemala with Granddaughters,” by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala 1971-1973) is part of The Yin & Yang of Travel Series and was published by The Wanderlust Journal. Although Walker took his granddaughters to the Peace Corps site where he met his wife, this story is about more than what happened over fifty years before. According to Walker, “Over the last fifty years, the why and where I travel have changed radically. In 2013, my wife Ligia and I took two of our three children, along with their significant others, to Guatemala to reintroduce them to the country they were born in and to their extended family. We covered a lot of ground, as my children spoke fluent Spanish and were already global trekkers. But ten years later we had eight grandkids, some of whom only spoke English and had never traveled outside the continental U.S., so Ligia and I . . .

Rowland Scherman: A 17th Century Etching Becomes a Book

Dec 06 2024

A 17th Century Etching Becomes a Book The story of “Love Letters” Rowland Scherman (PC/W Staff photographer 1961-64) was like any other PCV as he traveled the world, photographing PCVs at work. I met him in 1962 in Ethiopia. He would go onto become a nationally known photographer, famous for many of his photographs. This gallery of photographs by Rowland includes images of iconic figures from the 1960s, from musicians Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan, to public figures Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. He has now created a website. Here is one of his first publications with a few of Rowland’s famous photographs.. John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) The year was 1975. I had been living in London for five years, having abandoned any desire to travel to Pondicherry, India to meditate—which at one time, was the whole idea of leaving New York and the USA. I did, indeed, continue . . .

Glenn’s List for Giving Tuesday – Amplify the Peace Corps Community’s Global Impact

Dec 03 2024

Today is Giving Tuesday. I encourage you to participate by supporting your favorite charity. Below are those that I personally support in 2024 and to which I hope you will join me in making a generous donation. They are all (except NMCS) founded and led by returned Peace Corps Volunteers: Peace Corps Foundation* – It’s time to tell the rest of America’s story of our ongoing commitment to service and global citizenship by creating Peace Corps Park on a National Park Service site near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The long-term mission of the Foundation is to support Peace Corps community projects. Chijnaya Foundation – Working in partnership with rural communities in Southern Peru to design and implement self-sustaining projects in health, education, and economic development. CorpsAfrica* – Building the next generation of African leaders and changemakers, connecting rural communities, and nurturing entrepreneurs. Volunteers work in host communities to . . .

Peace Corps Park Featured on Global Connections Television

Dec 02 2024

View GCTV Interview Now Since my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala (1988-91), I have had the privilege of serving the global Peace Corps community in a variety of leadership roles. These days, I am spearheading the creation of Peace Corps Park, a commemorative work to be established on a National Park Service site near the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Journalist Bill Miller (Dominican Republic 1968-70) recently interviewed me for his Global Connections Television (GCTV), an independently-produced, privately-financed talk show that focuses on international issues and how they impact people worldwide. Bill has interviewed several returned Peace Corps Volunteers on his program. Click here to view the 20-minute GCTV interview. More about Peace Corps Park: Peace Corps Park is envisioned as an enduring commemorative to the spirit of service and global community fostered by the Peace Corps since its establishment in 1961. Authorized . . .

Archive - December 2024