The Peace Corps

On May 2, 1962, the Peace Corps sent Lawrence Williams to Rabat, the capital city of independent Morocco. Williams, then operations officer for French-speaking Africa, joined in discussions which soon led to Peace Corps programs in three countries of West Africa—Morocco, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. These discussions were comparatively brief—a sign that in its second year the Peace Corps was becoming an established institution around the world. In mid-June, Williams went to the Ivory Coast for two weeks, returned briefly to Rabat, and on June 29, took off to Dakar in Senegal. By July 8, he was back in Washington. The program in Morocco called for English teachers and rural community action workers where the emphasis was on surveying and irrigation. The 56 Volunteers who were to carry out this program went into training at California State Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo on October 12, 1962. They arrived in . . .

  Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Barry Hillenbrand (Ethiopia 1963-65).   Peace Corps Mission and Operations Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen delivered remarks about the volunteer organization’s mission and operations at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She stressed the Peace Corps’ relevancy and the work of volunteers when they are serving abroad in a host country. https://www.c-span.org/video/?455661-1/jody-olsen-discusses-peace-corps-mission    

In 1947, John Alexander followed his graduation from the George Washington University, where he received his degree in economics, by entering Government service. He was promptly sent overseas, the beginning for him of ten years’ uninterrupted activity in the nation’s Foreign Service. Before he returned to take an administrator’s desk in Washington, he had acquire a working familiarity with the overseas side of foreign aid operations. Starting out as an economist with the U.S. Military Government in Germany, Alexander worked for two years on taxation and budget problems in Berlin and Stuttgart. He was then transferred to the U.S. Commissioner’s Office under the State Department and assigned first to Frankfurt, then to Bonn. He concluded his German tour with the Economic Cooperation Administration, a predecessor agency to AID, working on problems of occupation costs and the financing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizing. In 1954, Alexander was sent half way . . .

“They (the Volunteers) have done a very good job, mixing with the people and encouraging self-help measures. We hope to get more of them.” –Prime Minister Rashidi Kawawa of Tanganyika. “The Peace Corps I think is a wonderful idea. I think it is terrific. There is no better way to show the world what we are than to have our young people, acting just as themselves, going throughout these under developed countries.”—News commentator Richard C. Hottelet “Just a year ago many people were holding their fingers crossed. ….We know, a year later, that these bright and dedicated Peace Corpsmen of ours stood the test.” –Farmers Union Herald “I hope that when they come back, many of them will decide to make the Foreign Service their life work. If they do, we will have a better chance for survival.”–Max Lerner New York Post. “I have had an opportunity to meet many . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bea Hogan (Uzbekistan 1992-94)  Too Old to Be a Freshman in Congress? Donna Shalala Doesn’t Care By Emily Cochrane Washington Post, December 30, 2018 WASHINGTON — The Georgetown waterfront apartment where Donna Shalala has spent part of the last two decades is half sanctuary, half résumé. There is a signed photo of Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, walking with Ms. Shalala when both were in Bill Clinton’s cabinet. A gold coffee table is adorned with the visages of the kings of Persia, a reminder of her time in pre-revolutionary Iran as a Peace Corps volunteer. Against a bookshelf a set of golf clubs rests in a bag emblazoned with the trademark orange and green “U” from the University of Miami, the 17,000-student private institution where she was president until 2015. The shoulder bag left on a chair by the door with a different seal . . .

The administrative pattern for the Peace Corps in Nigeria was filled out for the first year with the arrival of Jacques Wilmore in April, 1962. Wilmore was promptly posted to Enugu as Field Officer for the Eastern Region. With no prospect in sight for the office at Kaduna in the Northern Region, this post was, in effect, assigned to Robert Baker, the contract overseas representative for UCLA, known by Volunteers as COR. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Wilmore went to work in a men’s clothing store after graduating from high school and while waiting to turn 18 so he could join the Army. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps six months before the end of the war in 1945 and wound up a staff sergeant with an engineering battalion in the Philippines. Discharged just before Christmas, 1946, he returned home and entered Lincoln University where, in 1950, he obtained . . .

Peter Max  

This plan is dated December 18, 2018. Here is the most important statement: “The agency has, therefore, determined that the Peace Corps is not required during a lapse in appropriated funding to take any action to evacuate Volunteers and return them to their homes of record. The Director has determined that all Peace Corps U.S. direct hire and FSN employees overseas are reasonably necessary for the protection of human life and property and, in particular, are required to ensure the health, safety and security of currently serving Volunteers.” Read the entire plan, here: https://files.peacecorps.gov/documents/open-government/Peace_Corps_Operations_Plan_in_the_Absence_of_Appropriations.pdf Everyone is urged to read the whole plan.  It would not be appropriate, in my opinion, to excerpt sections as the whole plan has to be considered in its entirety.  However, the above statement, again in my opinion, does answer the most important question about the immediate impact on serving Volunteers.

Check out the Program for Monday, December 17, 2018 & Watch Video of CorpsAfrica Volunteers Program: https://issuu.com/corpsafrica/docs/harris_wofford_booklet_for_issuu Video: https://youtu.be/jLbzfRiz9os. More photos at: https://www.flickr.com/gp/68558103@N05/08S9 Liz Fanning (Morocco 1993-95) Founder & Director Cors Africa Read about the remarkable CorpsAfrica Volunteers in Morocco, Senegal, Malawi and Rwanda, and follow their adventure on the Volunteer blog, here. CFC #41180 Liz Fanning Mobile: (212) 831-5457 Email: lfanning@corpsafrica.org Skype: lizfanning Mailing address: P.O. Box 5414 – Washington, DC 20016 Website: www.corpsafrica.org