Miscellany

One afternoon back in 1963 novelist Mark Harris received a telephone call from Sargent Shriver inquiring whether he’d be interested in writing a special report about the Peace Corps. Mark gladly accepted, then waited five months while his loyalty and sanity were investigated (been there, done that), and then he went overseas  to West Africa where he wandered around for ten days in a country he later called ‘Kongohno’ and he also  wrote his one-and-only Evaluation Report for Charlie Peters. Mark Harris retells all this in a book entitled, Twentyone Twice published in 1966. The book has two sections. One is about getting through security, the second is about Africa. The fictional name that he used of the West African country he visited is Kongohno…I’m not sure of the actual country, but I believe it was Sierre Leone. Old timers in the Peace Corps might know the real name of the country Mark Harris visited as a Peace Corps Evaluator in . . .

The death of Father Ted Hesburgh brought back to mind a story I heard about Father Ted and Warren Wiggins that happened in the early days of the agency. As we all know, the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, “Father Ted” who transformed the University of Notre Dame into an academic power during his 35 years as president, died last week. Father Ted was also a key figure in the creation of the Peace Corps. In 1997 I interviewed the late Warren Wiggins about his role in the early days of the agency. For those who do not know, Warren, with Bill Josephson, wrote “A Towering Task” which was a working paper that they sent to Sargent Shriver in early ’61 as Sarge was in the beginning stages of designing the agency. Wiggins came “on board” then, and eventually became the Deputy Director. When I interviewed Warren in 1997, I asked him . . .

Attending the announcement of Let Girls Learn in the East Room of the White House today were Peace Corps Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, and these ‘old hands’ from the Glory Days of the agency. Former Senator, architect of the agency, CD Ethiopia, Harris Wofford, Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Colombia RPCV Maureen Orth, and former Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan photo courtesy of Maureen Orth

Dear Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Today, I am delighted to share that as part of the U.S. government’s commitment to girls’ education, First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps have formed a powerful collaboration called Let Girls Learn to expand access to education for girls around the world. I invite you to watch a special message from the First Lady to all Peace Corps Volunteers-and the staff who support them-worldwide. While we know that educating girls is essential to healthy and thriving communities, globally, 62 million girls are not in school, and barriers to adolescent girls completing school are particularly significant. In some countries, fewer than 10 percent of teenage girls complete secondary school. The Peace Corps’ collaboration with the First Lady will start this year in 11 targeted countries: Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Togo, and Uganda. Under Let Girls Learn, we will . . .

Thanks to Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65) for the ‘Heads Up’ news on this new program for girls’ education that the President and the First Lady, along with the Peace Corps Director, Carrie Hessler-Radelet, will announce this Tuesday afternoon in the East Room of the White House. This program–Let Girls Learn–will help adolescent girls across the world receive an education. The Let Girls Learn initiative will build on a United States Agency for International Development campaign launched last year to provide an education to the more than 60 million girls not in school. It focuses on empowerment and leadership, health and nutrition and protection against gender-based violence protection and forced marriages, among other issues. The Peace Corps will look for ways to overcome the barriers that prevent girls from completing their educations, including the cost of a uniform, school fees, lack of textbooks, Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet told reporters. The . . .

Your Monday Briefing By ADEEL HASSAN John F. Kennedy first suggested the idea of a Peace Corps in an impromptu, 2 a.m.address at the University of Michigan, three weeks before he was elected president. He signed legislation creating the organization on March 1, 1961, less than six weeks after his inauguration. Fifty-four years later, this is Peace Corps Week. The organization has 6,818 volunteers working in 64 developing countries, less than half the record high of more than 15,000, reached in 1966. But sweeping changes to the application process last year – like allowing volunteers to select their country of service – increased the number of candidates by more than 70 percent. Today’s Peace Corps volunteers are mostly female (63 percent), unmarried (94 percent), white (75 percent) and youthful (only 7 percent are over 50). Education is its biggest focus, followed by health services. Forty-five percent serve in Africa, and 23 percent in Latin America. California . . .

The Peace Corps has a birthday coming up and to kick off Peace Corps Week 2015, the agency wants you to flood Facebook and Twitter with a ‘Happy Peace Corps Week’ Thunderclap. Join our digital Peace Corps flash mob–along with hundreds of others–and celebrate 54 years of promoting world peace. Thunderclap is a platform that allows people to pledge one Tweet or Facebook post (or both!) that is concentrated and unleashed at the same time. After you sign up, it will automatically post the same coordinated message from all supporters on March 2. It’s free and only takes 10 seconds. Please go to Thunderclap link: http://bit.ly/1EXRZOI Many thanks.

Peace Corps Sexual Assault Advisory Council Member Application Make A Difference in the Lives of Peace Corps Volunteers! The Peace Corps is seeking RPCVs–both sexual assault survivors and other former Volunteers–to lend their experience and voice to strengthen Peace Corps’ sexual assault training, response and policies. They are also looking for committed experts from fields related to sexual assault risk-reduction and response programs to join the Sexual Assault Advisory Council. Position Overview The Sexual Assault Advisory Council advises the Peace Corps on its Sexual Assault Risk-Reduction and Response Program for Peace Corps Volunteers. Council members bring their technical expertise and experience to enrich the global program. Members review the Agency’s sexual assault response services; Volunteers and Staff training; and related policies; and provide best practices and research findings to Peace Corps leadership and service providers. Peace Corps is looking for law enforcement; mental health and health care providers; attorneys; educators; . . .

Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet speaks as a part of the semester-long conversation on development convened by the Georgetown Global Futures Initiative. February 24, 2015 – The Peace Corps can benefit from engaging with countries that have tenuous relations with the United States, said Carrie Hessler-Radelet, the international organization’s director, at a Feb. 23 lecture at Georgetown. Hessler-Radelet, who spoke as part of a semester-long conversation on development convened by the Georgetown Global Futures Initiative, said working in such areas will help the Peace Corps achieve its goal of building cross-cultural understanding. “We need to make sure we’re reaching out to those communities who fear us or don’t understand us and who we also don’t understand,” she said. Profound Example The Peace Corps director told the Georgetown audience about a former child soldier whose family had been killed by Arab militia. After the boy immigrated to the U.S. and graduated . . .

Both Washingtons top lists of schools producing most Peace Corps volunteers By Colby Itkowitz February 18 Washington Post President Kennedy hands his brother-in-law, Sargent Shriver, a pen after signing legislation at the White House giving the Peace Corps permanent status in September 1961. Kennedy joshingly praised Shriver, head of the corps, as “one of the most effective lobbyists Washington has seen.” Rep. Roman Pucinski, (D-IL.), is at center. Local colleges once again were among the top schools whose graduates became Peace Corps volunteers. But it’s the other Washington that produced the most Peace Corps members in 2014. Schools in Washington State took the top spot across all undergraduate categories: “The University of Washington reclaimed the top spot among large schools with 72 alumni currently in service, and Western Washington University and Gonzaga University again topped medium and small schools with 47 and 20 currently serving alumni, respectively,” the Peace Corps . . .

Michelle Chirby (Benin 2012–14) wrote to Peace Corps Worldwide: I met Marian at an RPVC event in Oakland last night, and I wanted to reach out regarding an opportunity that I think may interest your community of bloggers. I am an RPCV (Benin, 2012-2014) who worked often with moringa — a ubiquitous tree in West Africa (and most of the global south), known from its nutritional value and many other special uses. Now I work for Kuli Kuli, an Oakland-based start-up company founded by Lisa Curtis (Niger 2010) that sources moringa from women-owned farming cooperatives in Ghana. We make “superfood” products with moringa, while also partnering with an NGO on the ground to address malnutrition in the rural communities from which we source moringa. Next month, Kuli Kuli is launching its Organic Moringa Powder in stores, and to celebrate, we’re hosting a recipe competition for chefs and/or bloggers to create . . .

Tuolumne County native competes on ‘Wheel of Fortune’ By Lacey Peterson, The Union Democrat February 10, 2015 02:30 pm Tuolumne native Ben Fairfield and his wife, Lisa Chuang Fairfield, now of Hawaii, will be contestants on “Wheel of Fortune” Thursday night. Courtesy photo. Tuolumne County native Ben Fairfield will be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune on Thursday. Fairfield, 33, and his wife, Lisa Chuang Fairfield, 32, of Oahu, were selected as contestants on a couples episode of Wheel of Fortune that was taped in Hawaii. It will air at 7:30 p.m. on KXTV or CBS. Check local listings or go online to www.wheeloffortune.com and click, “Find your Station.” Fairfield grew up in Tuolumne and is the son of Paul and Julie Fairfield, of Tuolumne. He attended Mother Lode Christian School and graduated as co-valedictorian in 2000. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Azusa Pacific University in 2004. Fairfield earned his . . .