Peace Corps: Public Records

Peace Corps is going to host an online panel of RPCVs who will discuss how their faith influenced their service. It is necessary to register to “join the session.”  I have copied the announcement, here.  If you wish to register,  go to the Peace Corps web page at: http://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/learn/meet/events/25119/   Here is the announcement: “Religion Abroad – How Faith Interacts with Service Online Date 04/08/2016 Time 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Pacific) Description How does faith interact with Peace Corps service? Peace Corps service involves community integration and cultural exchange. How does faith fit in? Join us for this special online panel event as Returned Peace Corps Volunteers discuss the ways their religious backgrounds shaped their time abroad. Registration is necessary to join this session.  Please register here to attend. About the Peace Corps: Read more or watch a video about what it’s like to be a Volunteer including what Volunteers do, . . .

The three year RPCV Breast Cancer Research Study conducted by Baylor University is completed and evidently was unable to collect sufficient data. The study was examining the possibility that women who took chloroquine (Aralen) as an anti-malaria drug had a reduced risk of breast cancer over their lifetimes. Animal studies conducted at Baylor suggested that the drug may also reduce the breast cancer risk.The plan was to study a human female population that had taken chloroquine to determine if the population had a reduced risk of breast cancer. This was not an official Peace Corps study. Baylor could not access the medical records, the names and birth dates, or even the service assignments of Peace Corps Women. Instead, the study had to rely on self- reporting. The research group developed a comprehensive online questionnaire to gather this information. Respondent Driven Sampling was the  method used to identify this population. Baylor entered . . .

The National Peace Corps Association’s highlighted group for the month of February is Committee for a Museum of the Peace Corps Experience. This is how the group is described: “Bringing the world home and sharing the Peace Corps experience comes in many shapes and forms. In the northwest corner of the United States, a small yet mighty group of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) is focusing on presenting the Peace Corps to thousands by having a permanent museum. Read more about the Committee for a Museum of the Peace Corps Experience, our National Peace Corps Association affiliate group of the month for February.” Read more at: http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/2016/02/npca-featured-group-committee-for-a-museum-of-the-peace-corps-experience/ The Peace Corps Act (Sec. 2517. Activities promoting Americans’ understanding of other peoples) “In order to further the goal of the Peace Corps, as set forth in section 2 of this Act [22 U.S.C. 2501], relating to the promotion of a better understanding of other peoples . . .

Thank you Tino Calabia for your penetrating review of “13 Hours.”Here are links that give more  information about the horrendous attack. The soldiers of the Benghazi movie were EX military. They had jobs as contract security for the CIA. Here is what their CIA boss says about the movie: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/former-cia-chief-in-benghazi-challenges-film-version-of-2012-attack/2016/01/15/9cf2defc-baf7-11e5-b682-4bb4dd403c7d_story.html Here is what the heartbroken father of Ambassador Stevens pleaded: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218117/Father-Ambassador-Chris-Stevens-says-abhorrent-play-politics-sons-death-Benghazi.html Here is  career foreign service officer Gregory Hicks’s testimony before Congress. Hicks recounts that he was in charge of the Embassy in Tripoli because Ambassador Stevens had gone to the Benghazi outpost on 9/11. Hicks  knew that embassies in the Mid East were being attacked.Yet, at the end of his work day, he retired to his villa and was watching TV. He missed two cell phone calls from Ambassador Stevens. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/08/transcript-whistle-blower-account-sept-11-libya-terror-attack.html

Leaving El Salvador 1980 – Peace Corps left El Salvador in the Spring of 1981  for the first time.  The documents describing what was happening in El Salvador and Peace Corps were made available by the Digital National Security Archives at George Washington University. Posted by Joanne Roll on Friday, March 9th 2012     https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/leaving-el-salvador-1980-final/   The following document summarizes how events dictated the final decision: “Summary of Events Leading to the Withdrawal of Peace Corps Volunteers from El Salvador” (DNSA/GWU:Collection: El Salvador, The Making of U.S. Policy 1977-1984, Item Number: ES00332)   “In early January, PC Deputy Director William Sykes and LAC Regional Director Paul Bell traveled to El Salvador to assess the situation. After much dialogue with PCVs, PC staff, American Embassy and GOES officials, the recommendation was given to Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste not to withdraw the PCVS. (My note: there is an attachment referenced describing the . . .

One of the many hidden treasures of Peace Corps history is the RPCV Oral History Collection at the JFK Library, begun more than fifteen years ago by RPCV Robert Klein,(Ghana I). Bob interviewed members of Ghana I for his book, Being First: An Informal History of the Early Peace Corps Robert Klein (Ghana 1961-63) Wheatmark, 2010 and realized how valuable those taped interviews were. He decided to expand to interview as many RPCVs as possible, at his own expense. For years, he crisscrossed the country, interviewing RPCVs and teaching them how to interview others. The JFK Library agreed to archive the tapes. There are now APPROXIMATELY 400 individual RECORDED interviews, one to three hours long. Years of service represented go from 1961 through 2015. All RPCVs may participate.  Sadly, Bob died in 2012.  His partner, RPCV Phyllis Noble, (Nigeria 65-67) has continued his work.. In an email, Phyllis wrote: “I’m delighted to talk to people about . . .

Peace Corps Response originally began as the Crisis Corps. It was designed to send RPCVs overseas in short term assignments to help in emergency situations. Peace Corps Response utilized RPCVs unique cultural and language experience. Peace Corps Response Volunteers also helped prepare countries when Peace Corps was re entering previously closed countries, such as Colombia. In 2010, Peace Corps expanded the Response program to include non-professionals with ten years of experience in needed skills. Originally, the assignments were short term; three months to a year. Peace Corps Response Volunteers may have a week of orientation, but the short term nature of their assignment does not allow for the intensive language and cross-cultural training that traditional Volunteers receive. This new partnership will bring IBM professional teams to designed countries for four weeks to work with serving Peace Corps Volunteers and Host Country Counterparts on specialized projects. Here is the press release from the . . .

The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011 mandated that a Peace Corps Sexual Assault Advisory Council be created to evaluate the progress the agency was making on implementing that legislation.The report is made to the President, the Chair, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, and Chair, House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The Report was delivered on October 28, 2015. It covers the period Fiscal 2014 to Fiscal 2015. The report addresses many issues that were publicized recently. It is now available online at the Peace Corps’s official website. The Executive Summary is copied below. http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/PCAC_Annual_Report_2015.pdf “EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIn the years since the Kate Puzey Act was passed, the Peace Corps has worked diligently and meticulously to implement a new Sexual Assault Risk Reduction and Response Program (SARRR) that raises the bar on support and services that are provided to Volunteer victims. The Peace Corps recognized the need for change . . .

Letters from  Nurses in the Peace Corps was published in 1967 as a recruiting brochure. It currently is not available on the media website of the Peace Corps. When the transition to the new website, PCLive, is complete, then this digitalized historical document and others may be once again available online on that website. I have copied some letters here. As the work of Peace Corps Volunteers, particularly women, is under discussion, I wanted to show their Peace Corps work, in their own words. • • • • • Letters from Peace Corps Nurses A 1967 Peace Corps recruiting brochure . RUTH REESE WRITES FROM MALAYSIA It was a quiet Sunday when two young girls from the nearest longhouse came to fetch me to deliver a baby — my first such opportunity in six weeks of health work among the 13 longhouses at our community-development center. Birth in an !bah longhouse . . .

The Peace Corps has published the latest Statistical Report of Crimes against Volunteers for FY2014. The Report should be read, and I will not attempt to summarize it because it is so exact and comprehensive. The Report includes definitions of each category of crime and then breaks out the incidents by country and gender. I found it very difficult to read because it brings home in black and white the  difficulties that so many Volunteers are facing. Here is the link: http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/volsafety.pdf On the webpage of Peace Corps there are other direct links to various reports concerning safety and security for Volunteers. Here is the list and links. Many of these reports are for applicants and those entering service and are designed to inform them. Some remind me of the old booklets from colleges, “So Now you are going to College” “What about Safety”  This report was updated 9.2.15  Here . . .

Health Justice for Volunteers Founder, Nancy Tongue send out this notice: “The journalist who has been working on the sexual assault issues has notified us that her piece is going live on Monday on CBS This Morning, the national broadcast, sometime between 7 and 9am ET on Monday.” From the information that Nancy Tongue mailed, my understanding is that the focus will be on Peace Corps’s implementation of The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011. For a good  overview, read the Peace Corps Performance and Accountability Report FY2015. It has just been published. Here is the link: http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/policies/annrept2015.pdf The last section is by the is the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).  The OIG reviews its previous recommendations to Peace Corps management  and the current status of those recommendations. One ongoing concern of the OIG has been the training of overseas staff, particularly in regard to the law and sexual . . .

Peace Corps has issued the following press announcement: WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 27, 2015 – The Peace Corps today announced the temporary suspension of its program in Mali due to escalating security concerns. All Peace Corps volunteers are in the process of departing the country and the agency will continue to monitor the security environment in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy in Bamako to determine if and when volunteers can return. The Peace Corps has enjoyed a long partnership with the government and people of Mali and is committed to continuing volunteers’ work there in a safe and secure environment. Volunteers’ health, safety and security are the Peace Corps’ top priorities. There were 35 volunteers in Mali working with their communities on projects in community economic development and health. More than 2,645 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Mali since the program was established in 1971.http://www.peacecorps.gov/media/forpress/press/2612/

The following announcement was posted in the CRPCVA weekly newsletter.  The Columbia River Peace Corps Association is a very active group.  They present a museum display of the Peace Corps Experience around the Portland area. The formatting is copied from the newsletter.  Here is the link to their webpage: http://www.crpca.org The link in the announcement should be a copy and paste if reading it here.  Many  of us may beyond Graduate School, but what a great way to honor Shriver and a wonderful opportunity to pass along. Graduate Fellowship Opportunity with
Shriver Pieceworker Fellows Program Hello RPCV’s! I am writing you from the Shriver Peaceworker Fellows Program in Baltimore, MD.  Peaceworker is a competitive graduate fellowship program exclusively for RPCVs, and our current recruitment season is open and accepting applications. Fellows complete fully funded masters degrees in any discipline while serving 20 hours per week with a nonprofit or government partner . . .

The Washington Post is reporting that the only American killed in the Mali terror attack was RPCV Anita Datar. Here is the link to read the Post report: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/anita-datar-was-the-only-american-killed-in-mali-she-was-there-to-help/2015/11/20/70e0b0aa-8fe6-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483_story.html From the report: “When she was in her early 20s, Anita Datar spent two years in Africa, serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. She was on the continent again, this time in Mali, on Friday, when gunmen seized a luxury hotel and killed at least 20 people. Datar, a 41-year-old international development worker from Takoma Park, Md., is the only American known to have died in the attack.” Thanks to the National Peace Corps Association for posting this on their Facebook page, where I first read about it.

From Peace Corps Twitter– “All Peace Corps Mali Volunteers and Staff are safe and accounted for. PC Mali has eyes on all Volunteers (and/or direct voice contact with them). We are in communication with the Embassy and will keep Volunteers and Staff updated of the security situation in Bamako.” There is a Peace Corps contingent in Mali. From the Peace Corps website: http://www.peacecorps.gov/volunteer/learn/wherepc/africa/mali/ “There are 39 Peace Corps Volunteers in Mali working with their communities on projects in community economic development and health. During their service in Mali, Volunteers learn to speak local languages, including Bambara, French, Malinke, Minianka, and Senoufou. More than 2,645 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Mali since the program was established in 1971.”