The Peace Corps

    Here is Glenn Blumhorst Report about his experience. From the NPCA webpage:   “There is a great need for Spanish-speaking volunteers to serve in hospitality centers at the southern border. NPCA President Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala 1988-91) recently took a leave of absence to lend a hand. Here’s his story and how you can volunteer with Annunciation House. “I can empathize with them; I’ve been in their shoes,” said Lupe, the Amtrak ticket agent in El Paso, Texas. I was dropping off Fortunato and his six-year-old daughter, Lourdes, for their four-day trip to Bellingham, Washington, with connections in Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle. I was moved by how kind and considerate Lupe was to these particular travelers – refugees who had made the arduous journey from their village in Guatemala to the United States, desperately seeking the safety and economic security that we Americans take for granted. “I can too,” I . . .

    From the website of the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience — “The Committee for a Museum of the Peace Corps Experience was founded by returned Peace Corps Volunteers in 1999 in Portland, Oregon.  As a 501(c)(3) private, non-profit organization, the Committee has an established record of artifact acquisition, professional exhibitions and modest fundraising. The Committee expanded its focus to the national level in 2016 during Peace Corps’ 55th Anniversary.  Twelve dedicated returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) from across the country stepped forward to comprise a core planning group. The Committee dramatically increased its activities in 2017 with a planning retreat in Denver preceding the annual Peace Corps Connect conference.  Momentum built when Committee members met face-to-face for the first time and reconfirmed their commitment to building a museum, both online and physical. They formulated four strategic initiatives – Operations, Collections, Fundraising, Technology – which provide the road . . .

    Visionary Women Championed During Women’s History Month Published March 28, 2019 A Distinguished Career of Furthering Peace Throughout the World   “Just say peacemaker,” responded Patti Garamendi when she was asked how she would like to be introduced for an event recognizing National Women’s History Month at the Census Bureau. Clearly, the returned Peace Corps volunteer (Ethiopia, 1966–68), former associate director of the Peace Corps, and former vice chair of the Committee on World Food Security for the United Nation’s Food and Agricultural Organization, sees “peacemaker” as one of the most important roles in her dynamic, impactful career. On March 5 to an audience of employees—some returned Peace Corps volunteers themselves—eager to hear her stories and advice. The event was sponsored by the Census Women Count Chapter of Federally Employed Women and the Equal Employment Opportunity Office. This year’s theme for National Women’s History Month, “Visionary Women: Champions . . .

  Back in 1966 when the Peace Corps first went to Micronesia, the agency launched its recruitment strategy with a pamphlet showing a glorious sunny beach and palm trees waving with the wind under the headline, “Peace Corps Goes to Paradise.” Needlessly to say, that Ad outraged current and former Volunteers who didn’t see their service as idling away a few years on a blissful island. Now the Peace Corps is headed to Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea in Southeastern Europe, just across the water from Italy, and neighboring Albania, Bosnia and Croatia. In 2020, PCVs will be arriving to work in primary education programs in a nation famous for its gambling and nightlife. Some tourists call the country, “a poor man’s Monaco.” But as Director Jody Olsen said in her announcement, “The Peace Corps is proud to partner with the Government and people of Montenegro. This is a truly unique . . .

Peace Corps Press Release WASHINGTON – The Peace Corps announced today plans to establish a new program in Montenegro focused on English education. Montenegro will represent the agency’s 142nd country of service and will be considered an extension of the existing Peace Corps post in Albania. The Government of Montenegro invited the Peace Corps to establish a program in the country in August 2018; the new program will open next year. The first group of Volunteers is scheduled to depart in January 2020. The new Volunteers will undergo three months of comprehensive technical, cross-cultural and language training in Albania before starting two years of service in small, under-served Montenegrin communities. The new cohort will serve as education Volunteers in primary schools and co-teach with Montenegrin English teachers. The Volunteers will also work with their teacher counterparts to engage young people in after-school clubs, educational camps and sports initiatives. Volunteers may . . .

    Quote of the Week “I recommend that we remember the beginning of the Peace Corps. We risked everything at our beginning in a leap of faith that the Peace Corps would succeed.  … We were a Corps, a band of brothers and sisters united in the conviction that if we worked hard enough to eradicate our fears, and increase the outreach of our love, we truly could avoid war, and achieve peace within our own selves, within our nation, and around the world.” Sargent Shriver | Washington, DC | September 22, 2001 • Our Quote of the Week honors two milestones we’re celebrating this month: the anniversary of Sargent Shriver’s tenure with the Peace Corps, and the birthday William “Bill” Josephson, our senior advisor and a close friend and colleague of Sargent Shriver’s. On March 22, 1961, President Kennedy appointed Sargent Shriver to the post of Director of the Peace Corps. . . .

Thank you to Alan Toth who posted this link on his Facebook page. Alan Toth is a RPCV and a documentary film producer: http://www.alantoth.net/about Walker Marsh is a serving Peace Corps Volunteer and wrote this article about a cyclone which hit Mozambique on March 15th. Walker Marsh Reports From Mozambique: We Need Urgent Help!    

Mark Jacobs (Paraguay 1978-80) Mark was the winner of the 1998 Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Award for his novel Stone Cowboy. A former Foreign Service officer, he has published more than 100 stories in magazines including The Atlantic, The Southern Humanities Review, The Idaho Review, The Southern Review, and The Kenyon Review. His story “How Birds Communicate” won the Iowa Review Fiction Prize in 1998. His five books include three novels and two collections of short stories. His website can be found at http://www.markjacobsauthor.com. Click here and read: Bear’s Change “The Hudson Review is rare in having remained a forum for intelligent, well-written criticism and cultural commentary on a broad spectrum of topics. In fact it belongs to a tiny handful of magazines where the first criterion of inclusion is literary merit.” — The Wall Street Journal Founded in 1948, The Hudson Review is a quarterly magazine of literature and the arts published in New York City. Frederick Morgan, one of . . .

    President Trump Recommends $14 Million Funding Cut for Peace Corps For the third consecutive year, President Trump is recommending a reduction in funding for the Peace Corps. The president’s request of $396 million for the agency in Fiscal Year 2020 would represent a slightly more than three percent cut in funding ($14 million). The proposed reduction is part of a much larger 24 percent cut to the nation’s International Affairs Budget.Read more and see Service Year Alliance statement response to the Trump Administration’s proposal to eliminate national service in the FY20 budget.  

If you call or email Glenn Blumhorst, NPCA President This is the message you get: “Greetings from El Paso! I’m on a volunteer vacation at Annunciation House March 19-29, with limited internet access. I’ll respond as soon as I can.” Short-Term Volunteers for Emergency Hospitality Posted on March 18, 2019 Beginning in summer 2018, we have seen an increase in the flow of refugees arriving at the El Paso border. As ICE detention facilities filled, the number of refugees being released by ICE increased.  As of the end of February 2019, 400-700+ refugees per day are being sent to Annunciation House. We are urgently seeking additional short-term volunteers to help us provide hospitality to these refugees. For more information, please read this document (PDF). Glenn Blumhorst (Guatemala 1988-91) continues to serve. He’s an example for all of us.  

    Peace Corps Press Release The Peace Corps announces 2019 top Volunteer-producing schools 03/20/2019 The University of Wisconsin-Madison boasts the No. 1 spot for large schools on Peace Corps’ Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities list, with 75 volunteers serving around the world. For the third consecutive year, Wisconsin holds the coveted top spot, but Badgers beware: the University of Virginia Cavaliers are closing the gap, jumping from No. 15 to No. 2 in just two years.With 74 UVA alumni serving as Peace Corps Volunteers, the school slides into a close second place on this year’s rankings. The University of California – Berkeley comes in at No. 11 on the large school list, but has sent over 3,500 alumni to Peace Corps service since 1961, more than any other school. Meanwhile, Arizona State University and The University of Arizona continue to duke it out in the desert. Currently 44 Sun . . .

    Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bill Josephson, Peace Corps General Counsel 1961-66     The Sargent Shriver Peace Institute Quote of the week — “The idea [of the Peace Corps is] that free and committed men and women can cross boundaries of culture and language, or alien tradition and great disparities of wealth, of old hostilities and new nationalisms, to meet with other men and women on the common ground of service to human welfare and human dignity. And if this idea isn’t going to change the world, then this world is beyond redemption!” Sargent Shriver | New York, NY | December 11, 1963 • Our Quote of the Week celebrates the 58th anniversary of the creation of the Peace Corps. On March 1, 1961, President Kennedy signed the executive order to create the Peace Corps. Three weeks later, on March 22, he would name Sargent Shriver as . . .

    A Writer Writes   Harris Wofford: An Exceptionally Good Man By Jerry Norris (Colombia 1963-65)   When reading Harris Wofford’s January 21 obituary in the Washington Post, it brought to mind a simple fact: it was through his office that I entered a glide path which led to my being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia. In January 1962, I had sent in an application but hadn’t heard back. Then, early that spring, having dinner one night with my family in Chicago, the telephone rang. My sister, Therese, rose to respond as she was closest. One minute later she came back into the kitchen, hands on her hips, saying in stark wonderment: it’s the White House that’s calling …and it’s for you! Soon, I was in discussion with a young woman who identified herself as one of Harris Wofford’s staff members. (At that time, he was Special Assistant . . .

    WASHINGTON – Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and members of the diplomatic community March 12 had a forum at the State Department entitled “The Lasting Value of Peace Corps Service.” Hosted by the State Department employee affinity group Returned Peace Corps Volunteers @ State, the event was held in the Dean Acheson Auditorium and livestreamed for staff at U.S. embassies around the world. The roundtable conversation and Q&A focused on how Peace Corps service shapes the personal and professional lives of Returned Volunteers. “Serving in a rural area, being the only American that hundreds of people will ever meet—that is a really powerful thing,” said Emily Armitage, who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Bulgaria before joining the State Department. Armitage recalled visiting with the people of her village in the months before Bulgaria entered the European Union and how valuable it was to be able to listen to . . .