Bye Bye Peace Corps?
My wife and I served in Tonga from December 1977 thru December 1979. It was there that I fell in…
What’s Happening to the Peace Corps?
As of July 8, 2024 there were roughly 2,840 Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in service overseas. This figure includes Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) and Peace Corps Response Volunteers (PCRVs). Those Volunteers are currently in 58 countries.
What I’ve been hearing is that the agency is laying off host country staff as the Peace Corps cuts back on overseas employees. The agency doesn’t need staff. Fewer and fewer Volunteers are joining our Peace Corps.
According to Lawrence Lihosit (Honduras 1975-77) informative book: Peace Corps Chronology 1961-2010 the last time we were as ‘close’ to these recent PCVs numbers was in June 1962 when there were even more PCVs– 2,940 in 27 countries.
In the mid-sixties we had these numbers:
1966–15,556
1967–14,968
1968–13,823
By the year 2000 the number of PCVs grew to 7,164.
The most PCVs for 10 countries back in the Sixties looked like this:
Philippines 8,369
Ecuador 5,789
Honduras 5,571
Thailand 4,915
Kenya 4,877
Colombia 4,638
Guatemala 4,561
India 4,325
Palau 4,203
Morocco 4,203
Then in January 1971, with the President cutting the budget, reducing the Peace Corps budget by 30%, the number of Volunteers dropped to 5,800 from 9,000. By June, the number of Volunteers had been reduced 42% within the first 30 months of the new administration.
By January 1972 the total number of Volunteers was 6,894, a 56% reduction from 1966.
Still, by 2009 there were 7,671 PCVs overseas and applications totaled 15,386, about one third of the number that applied in 1966 although the population had doubled since then.
Is it all over for the Peace Corps? Clearly if Trump is elected, the Peace Corps will be history.
But what is happening today with Biden in the White House?
Fewer and fewer young people are joining the agency and former host countries appear to be looking elsewhere for volunteers.
Still we have an agency. Here is a photo of the new Volunteers for the Philippines, one of the first nine countries to have Peace Corps programs in December of 1961.
This July, 2024, these 48 men and woman, young and old, are off to the Philippines with the Peace Corps!
I’m not sure this will impact other countries as much as it will impact the individuals who would have benefited from this experience. Has any research been done about why this is happening? I don’t think it can just be budget cuts. At the 2023 NPCA fall conference one of the speakers was a young woman living in South Africa, Nicole Banister. She thinks the reason for fewer volunteers is that PC hasn’t kept up with technology or marketing. Peace Corps hasn’t been made to look like “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” So does it come back to us? We haven’t taken the third goal seriously enough? Though I don’t think I’ve met anyone who was a RPCV who hasn’t let me know that they were once a PCV. So what is the answer?
My family fought (and died) in WWll, my sister served in the Peace Corps in Oman. I served in Lesotho and on staff in recruitment, public affairs and HQ staff with a focus on promoting national service. I have not seen a Peace Corps ad, PSA, commercial or Twitter meme in years. When Peace Corps is promoted, it gets applicants, usually far more than the agency has slots to fill. Unfortunately, we have not heard or seen national service as theme in American life since the Clinton era. Instead, our national consciousness views our nation increasingly as a casino with winners and lots of losers who believe the only purpose of the United States is to make them rich. When President Biden speaks of “restoring the soul of America” he and all of us need to start saying what we need is to restore what it means to be an American.
As a former RPCV in Uganda in 67’ -68’ , I still consider it one of the highlights of my life. We worked day and night, teaching , consoling, and caring for students in a secondary school that had closed because no one wanted to live in the bush,. Girls were able to go to school there because I was there! More people in US need to understand what PCV’s do!!
JFK foresaw 100,000 PCVs per year. Would you believe? Yes, 100,000 per year.
Tino Calabia, Peru, 1963-1965
John,
Perhaps as something akin to a ‘template’. PC/Washington should review how the Maureen Orth Foundation in Colombia progressed from a one room school house in the late 1960’s, then to teaching English as a pathway into compute use, IT,
AI, Robotics, Technology–all to prepare its students to enter a highly technical environment and competitive world.
The Foundation’s work was so impressive that Maureen was made a Honorary Citizen of Colombia, and it changed the Educational System of an entire country.
The point being: that as the world changed, her Foundation changed with it.
It all has to do with leadership promotion. When JFK asked U. of Mich. students during a 2am campaign rally if they’d like to serve their country in far off lands, the enthusiasm was immediate. The Sixties, in spite of the Vietnam War, was an idealistic time in US history. But today? Fuggedaboudit. Most people don’t trust the government/ many despise it. Even the military has trouble meeting its recruitment goals. Sad, but these are cynical times we’re living in.
Young people who want to make an impact, do a tough job that they love, help people in crisis, and serve long hours are flocking to the various healthcare professions. There is plenty of civic spirit among youth. It’s up to PC to tap it.
Numerous factors together have resulted in the current situation. Lack of buzz in a form of advertising, testimonials, and energetic on-campus recruitment. Piddling roll out of Volunteers to posts post pandemic, and too often just short-term Peace Corps Response. Less than inspiring top management leadership. A demoralized RPCV base with the questionable dismissal of mobilizing leader Glenn and the agency’s “CYA” handling and detrimental publicity from the “Tanzania incident,” to name a few. People ask if there is still a Peace Corps, and they shouldn’t. It’s time to ramp-up on-campus activity, to make recruitment a job description goal of everyone at headquarters, to create buzz in the media and remind Americans of the best vehicle that exists for international service, and to enlist us RPCVs in the effort.
Who do we push to change recruitment? It’s good to read reactions. Let’s help the process along of getting more going to advertise. Who should I send a message to, Congresspersons, head of Peace Corps? any ideas I can act on? It’s heartbreaking. We in the northwest are about to have our 32nd annual campout. We all hang together to this day. I was in Niger in the 60s. So glad I was even though I had never heard of the place. Being in the Peace Corps changes your life. Let’s help the younger folks have those experiences that lead to being active citizens aware of what’s going on in the world outside our borders.
Hi Sue, I was a Peace Corp volunteer in Tonga in the early 80s. My Older cousin was a PCV in Niger in the 60s. Her name was Lynne Martin. I can’t remember the exact years she was there, I believe she had red hair at the time and perhaps worked in maternal child areas. Perhaps you knew her?
Rena Godfrey
Peace Corps us oarrtnering with NPCA on an outreach program called “Each one reach one.” The plan is each RPCV should recruit one person to apply to the Peace Corps. I would like to see much more research done. In CD, the first step is to survey the community to learn what are the “felt needs.” I think Peace Corps should do that, first., by targeting key demographic groups who might be appropriate for Peace Corps and determining what their “felt needs are.”
I think it is important to remember when Peace Corps was begun, all men between the ages of 18 and 26 had to register for Selective Service, known as the Draft. The expectation was all healthy men would serve in the military for two years. With the advent of the Vietnam war, military service became very unpopular to many men. At that time, men could be drafted at 18, sent to Vietnam at 19, be dead at 20 and could not have voted until they were 21. That was not fair, in my opinion.
Two important events occurred during the first Nixon administration. Nixon “retired” Genery Hersey, the symbol of the Draft. Congress instituted the lottery system so at least men could plan what their possibility of being drafted was. Most importantly, the 26th Amendment was swifly passing through state
legislatyures. It gave 18 year olds the right to vote. The first election in which 18 year olds could vote was 1972. Nixon wan
a second term in landslide, defeating George Mongomery the Peace candidate and VP candidateSargent Shriver. The Draft was
“suspended.”
Corrections. Please excuse the many mistakes.
Peace Corps is partnering with NPCA on an outreach program called “Each one reach one.”
legislatures.
This posting came at an important time. Politics being as they are, the next 6 months are critical in two areas. The first is sustaining the historic program by aggressively populating the posts, including those which were evacuated in 2020 and haven’t yet been reopened we’re currently have only Response volunteers. Get as many posts opened with as many volunteers as possible in the next 6 months. The second is insulating the program from a possible new administration with an isolationist thrust. That means more one-on-one, people to people, and Peace Corps response type situations, which are less costly and can better be sustained under dramatic budget and program cuts.
I agree with Matt, above: I haven’t seen a Peace Corps ad in the media or billboards or even bus kiosks in a long time. Given the political uncertainties, the ads should focus, yes, on recruitment but also on the good that Peace Corps has done, and some of these could include testimonials from RPCVs.
The agency ran with a $400 million budget and three times the number of volunteers. Yes, inflation has taken up say 20%, but how is the budget money been used? I suggest that all resources during the next 6 months be devoted to sustaining the program, insulating it to the extent possible, and aggressively getting the message out in the media, in websites, on radio, and with advocacy groups.
I have a “wait and see” position on the Peace Corps. I remember that ii was during the Trump administration the Peace Corps Director RPCV Olson terminated every serving Volunteer while they were still in their host countries and then evacuated them home because of COVID. There was very little support to ease their transition home. Another RPCV began a Facebook page for these newly created RPCVs in which they could ask for help and information from the RPCV community. Evidently, the Peace Corps offices closed at 5PM, period .
If Trump is elected, he will have a staff throughout the Executive branch which will do his bidding. What would a Peace Corps headed by Navarro do?
I shudder at the thought of Peter Navarro and the Peace Corps! The Peace Corps agency was quite fortunate to have Director Jody Olsen at the helm during the previous Trump administration. She kept the agency largely off the White House radar and fully operational, despite deep cuts proposed to the Peace Corps’ annual budget.
In my opinion, former Director Olsen and her team made prudent decisions and did an amazing job of safely bringing home, in very short order, the 7,300 PCVs who were serving in over 60 countries in March 2020. It took a village to support them in making the unanticipated transition back to life in the U.S., including the combined efforts of RPCV groups, organizations, and individuals who rallied to welcome them home.
As President & CEO of National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) at the time, I worked closely and collaboratively with Director Olsen to ensure the evacuated RPCVs received extraordinary support in the months following. NPCA immediately fully launched the Global Reentry program, which we had already envisioned, designed, and piloted in the months prior. We successfully advocated to Congress on behalf of RPCVs for enhanced benefits and entitlements, such as non-competitive eligibility, extended health insurance, and robust readjustment allowances.
The current national service crisis was certainly exacerbated by the pandemic, but it should have been foreseen. In 2021, anticipating the recruitment challenges ahead and envisioning a need to inform and inspire future generations to consider serving in the Peace Corps, I drafted and presented “No School Left Behind,” a concept paper that contemplated an RPCV presenting their Peace Corps experience in every high school in every state at least once a year. But, alas, Peace Corps’ focus is understandably on the near-term demand for candidates, not during their more formative years in which they begin to imagine the world they want to live in.
Nowadays, with former Director Olsen chairing the Peace Corps Foundation’s advisory board, I am working closely with her and others to spearhead the campaign for Peace Corps Park in Washington, DC, confident that it has the potential to be the single most consequential Third Goal initiative ever undertaken. This landmark project is the product of over 20 years of RPCV grassroots advocacy to Congress, an extensive and collaborative design development process with the National Park Service and U.S. Commission for Fine Arts, and an unprecedented $10 million campaign to raise the private funds needed in order to break ground in 2025.
This welcoming space will not only honor the past but inspire future generations to engage in service that transcends borders. Peace Corps Park’s design, with its carved granite benches representing outreaching hands encircling a map of the world, aims to be a physical manifestation of the ideals of friendship, peace, and understanding. Peace Corps Park will welcome the more than 25 million annual visitors to Washington, D.C., honoring the past service of 250,000 Americans who have carried these values across the globe through the Peace Corps. A visitor app and virtual explorer, featuring augmented reality, will enable anyone to remotely experience Peace Corps Park from home, the classroom, or anywhere in the world.
More information at PeaceCorpsCommemorative.org. Sign up for the Peace Corps Foundation monthly newsletter to stay informed of developments.
Thank you to John and Marian of Peace Corps Worldwide, for providing this valuable forum for discussion and enabling so many RPCVs to tell their Peace Corps stories through the support of Peace Corps Writers.
My wife and I served in Tonga from December 1977 thru December 1979. It was there that I fell in love with teaching, which was a total surprise to me! Since then, I was a teacher until retiring in 2014, then teaching again in 2023-2024. Although these details may seem superfluous, I mention them because the idealism that existed when JFK proposed the idea of a Peace Corps is not today’s idealism. (I hope my comment will be construed as the observation of someone with nearly 50 years of high school classroom experience, and not as an indictment of today’s young adults.) I always took time to share my PC experiences with my students, and urged them to consider serving their country as a volunteer. I’m sure other rpcv who are now teaching do the same thing. I can only hope they have more success at “recruiting” than me. This is just my opinion, and certainly not a complete answer, but technology has given us a level of comfort and convenience that few people are willing to give up, such as cell phones, cars, air conditioning, etc. This wasn’t nearly such an issue 60 years ago. None of my schools, from elementary to high school, had air conditioning, and I’m talking about Texas temps! I don’t know how to convince more of today’s generation that PC service carries rewards that can’t be acquired in any other way. Volunteerism needs to be impressed upon students at an early age. Working through local PTAs and churches are possible steps. But as the numbers indicate, it’s going to be an uphill battle.
BTW, if you want to expound the virtues of Peace Corps service to our young adults, first acquaint yourself with the kind of politics that can drive Peace Corps decisions and Peace Corps ethics. I suggest reading “American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps” by Philip Weiss. The murder of one PC volunteer by another PC volunteer happened in Tonga, about a year before my wife and I arrived there. What happened thereafter was an absolute travesty of justice, deeply affecting and offending the people of Tonga. That may have been nearly 50 years ago, but human nature and politics haven’t changed in that time, and that includes the Peace Corps.