Peace Corps Worldwide – Page 50 – promoting Peace Corps writers since 1989

“On Essential Islands” by Nathan Fitch (Micronesia)

May 30 2023

In 2018, at the invitation of the college there, I traveled to the Federated States of Micronesia (“FSM”) to screen a documentary that I had made called Island Soldier. The film explores the service of Micronesian citizens in the United States armed services during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Peace Corps (1967–2018) As I arrived in the islands, bleary from my long flight (more than twenty hours of travel with layovers), the United States Peace Corps program was about to end after 60 years of continuous operation. The program has long been a visible symbol of the relationship between independent countries in the Western Pacific. A few days after I arrived, I spoke to Peace Corps Volunteer Sorcha Vaughan as she was preparing a farewell speech that she would be delivering to the state legislature and governor to close out the program on the island of Kosrae. Sorcha said, . . .

Indiana University — Bloomington | An historically top producing PCV school

May 27 2023

IU Bloomington was the training site for Thailand V. Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Bob Gurevich (Thailand 1963-65) Since 2003, Indiana University Bloomington has produced the 12th largest number of Peace Corps volunteers among the agency’s list of historically top volunteer-producing colleges and universities. IU ranks sixth in the Big Ten in terms of alumni who are volunteering around the world through the Peace Corps. • Twenty-five applicants from IU Bloomington are serving or will serve abroad in 2023. Since the agency’s founding in 1961, more than 1,762 IU alumni have served abroad as Peace Corps volunteers. “Demand for Peace Corps volunteers is high given setbacks in development progress following the COVID-19 pandemic,” Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn said. “Peace Corps service is the beginning of a lifetime of global connection and purpose for those bold enough to accept the invitation.” While IU Bloomington has had a tradition of . . .

What Kimberly Branam (Burkina Faso) wants for Portland

May 26 2023

May 25, 2023 Written by Britany Robinson It often seems the longer a person has lived in Portland, the more cynical they become about the city’s evolving character and challenges. Kimberly Branam (Burkina Faso 2002-05) is a third-generation Portlander — she grew up in Northeast Portland’s Irvington neighborhood, left for 10 years and has been back for 16 — but she leans against that curve, with grounded optimism about her hometown. As the executive director of Prosper Portland, it’s part of Branam’s job to be optimistic. Prosper Portland, formerly the Portland Development Commission, is the city’s economic and urban development agency. With a “focus on building an equitable economy by carrying out a comprehensive range of economic development programs,” Prosper Portland’s success in large part depends on growth: Its stated priorities include growing family-wage jobs, creating vibrant neighborhoods and communities, and advancing opportunities for prosperity. With growth comes growing pains. Portland . . .

Obituary | Patricia Wand (Colombia)

May 26 2023

Born in 1942 to Ignatius Bernard Wand and Alice Ruth Suhr Wand, Patricia (Pat) was the third child of eight siblings. Raised on a farm in the hills of the Columbia River Gorge between Troutdale and Corbett, OR, she attended Corbett Grade School and was a member of the first graduating class and student body president of Marycrest High School in Portland, OR. In childhood, Pat was a ten year 4H club member in clothing, sewing, and style revue. Her first project was sewing a pair of pajamas at age nine. As a teenager she won a trip to the National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago. Upon high school graduation, she accepted an Honors Scholarship to Seattle University, and after obtaining her Bachelor’s degree, immediately joined the second cohort of Peace Corp volunteers sent to Colombia, South America. While there, among many other accomplishments, she and other volunteers were . . .

Peace Corps Namibia Swearing-in Ceremony For Response PCVs

May 25 2023

Ambassador Randy Berry Remarks Peace Corps Response Swearing-In Ceremony Good morning! It is a great pleasure and honor to welcome you to this special ceremony commemorating the arrival of three dedicated Peace Corps Response Volunteers — the first of many as Peace Corps prepares to bring in additional groups of Volunteers to serve throughout Namibia. Peace Corps makes a significant contribution to building international understanding, peace, and friendship by its unique people-to-people connections. To our soon-to-be Response Volunteers, Alan Marks, Lauren Pinkerton, and Robert Kankelborg, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Namibia. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to Volunteering with the Peace Corps. In April, U.S. President Joseph Biden celebrated national Volunteer week, reflecting on the self-less spirit of Volunteers, he said, ”Volunteering brings people together, uniting us around our common belief in the dignity and equality of every person and giving us . . .

Bob Vila (Panama) remembers “This Old House“

May 24 2023

Bob Vila (Panama 1969-70) The project manager turned television host built home renovation entertainment. by KAREN HERMAN There was a time before home improvement shows existed, but a likeable project manager named Bob Vila changed that. After Vila restored his own Boston home and was asked to host a local television show to explain the process, the public’s interest in home renovation was unleashed and a new category of entertainment was born. For nearly thirty years Vila hosted multiple shows, starting with This Old House on PBS, then moving on to Bob Vila’s Home Again, Bob Vila and Restore America with Bob Vila. In the nineties, Vila appeared as a guest on the ABC comedy Home Improvement, acting along Tim Allen as a TV handyman. Today Vila’s videos are popular on YouTube and can also be seen at his website, BobVila.com. Vila was awarded a Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award in 2022, and he’s also the author . . .

THE WAR CAME TO US by Christopher Miller (Ukraine)

May 23 2023

The War Came to Us by Christopher Miller (Ukraine 2010-12) Bloomsbury Continuum Publisher 400 pages July 2023 $9.99 (Kindle) $28.00 (Hardcover) pre-order, audiobook • A breathtaking exploration of Ukraine’s past, present, and future, and a heartbreaking account of the war against Russia, written by the leading journalist of the conflict, former PCV Christopher Miller (Ukraine 2010-12). When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country, and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent for the Financial Times and the foremost journalist covering the country, was there on the ground when the first Russian missiles struck and troops stormed over the border. But the seeds of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the West were sown more than a decade earlier. This is the definitive, inside story of its . . .

Words of Wisdom from Wise Older Women | Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon)

May 22 2023

The WOW Factor: Words of Wisdom from Wise Older Women Martha is a Marvel Bonnie Lee Black (Gabon 1996-98) May 22, 2023 Martha Stewart is a marvel, don’t you agree? She’s a quintessential American success story, and Americans love success stories more than any other kind. From her modest beginnings as the second of six children in a working-class Polish-Catholic family in Nutley, New Jersey, Martha has risen to great heights, succeeding on every rung of her personal ladder, and climbing back up when she’s fallen off. She’s been a fashion model, a Wall Street stockbroker, an entrepreneur par excellence known worldwide as “the empress of domesticity,” a prison inmate, and now, at age eight-one no less featured in a bathing suit on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s just-published swimsuit issue. It takes your breath away. When I was a caterer in Manhattan from ’86 to ‘96, Martha was the caterer other . . .

Mary-Joan Gerson (Nigeria) | Children’s Author

May 22 2023

Mary-Joan Gerson, Ph.D., ABPP, is an Adjunct Clinical Professor, Supervisor and has served as the Director of the Advanced Specialization in Couple and Family Therapy at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Active in Division 39 of the APA, Dr. Gerson is the Founding President of Section VIII, Couples and Family Therapy, as well as Founding Co-Chair of the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Health, and the Committee on Psychoanalysis and Community. She is the author of many journal articles and book chapters including a full-length book, The Embedded Self: An Integrative Psychodynamic and Systemic Perspective on Couples and Family Therapy (second edition. 2009); Routledge. She has served in Nigeria (1965-67) in the Peace Corps, had a Fulbright Fellowship in Namibia, and has taught all over the world, as well as published five award-winning cross-cultural books for children: People of Corn: A Mayan Story Why The Sky Is . . .

Colorado State U celebrates Peace Corps Volunteers roots . . .

May 19 2023

. . . with new tribute garden as alumni continue to serve KUNC | By Stephanie Daniel Published May 18, 2123 In March, Mya Hunter sat in a hotel room in Miami. She had just finished a long day of training for the Peace Corps. The next morning, the recent Colorado State University graduate flew to Jamaica to begin her work as an agricultural volunteer with small-scale farmers and fulfill a desire she has had since she was a young girl. “I am so excited,” she said. “I think if you asked me this like 48 hours ago, I would be super, super nervous.” The 22-year-old Korean Hawaiian was born and raised on Oahu where her mother’s family has lived, along with other islands, for generations. She said the natural resources there have shaped every part of her life and made her decision to join and work with the Peace Corps . . .

Appointment and Resignation of Carolyn Payton

May 18 2023

After a five-month search for a new director of the Peace Corps, in which Sam Brown offered the job to Rafer Johnson, then-representative Ron Dellums of California, Jane Hart – the widow of former Senator Philip Hart – and LaDonna Harris, Brown appointed Carolyn Payton as Director of the Peace Corps. Payton was the first female Director of the Peace Corps, and the first African American. Brown clashed with Payton from the start. And after only thirteen months in the position, in November 1979, Brown asked for her resignation. She initially agreed to resign, then withdrew her resignation and issued a statement that implied she would not leave unless asked directly by President Carter, who asked for her resignation shortly thereafter. Payton cited, in part, policy differences between ACTION and the Peace Corps saying “as Director, I could not, because of the peculiar administrative structure under which the Peace Corps . . .

Carolyn L. Robertson Payton (1925-2001) First Black Director of the Peace Corps

May 18 2023

May 16, 2023 Dr. Carolyn L. Robertson Payton was the first African American and the first woman to become the director of the U.S. Peace Corps. She was appointed in 1977 by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Carolyn L. Robertson Payton was born on May 13, 1925, in Norfolk, Virginia, to Bertha M. Flanagan, a seamstress, and Leroy S. Robertson, a ship steward. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High school in Norfolk in 1941 and received her B.S. degree in Home Economics from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1945. Payton remained close to Bennett College, establishing a scholarship fund there in the late 1990s. Payton then attended the University of Wisconsin where her tuition and other expenses were paid by the state of Virginia as part of the state’s policy of sending black graduate students to out-of-state institutions rather than allowing them to received advanced degrees at . . .

Bill Josephson, One of the Founding Fathers of Peace Corps, Writes About False Information

May 17 2023

Please note: This letter is in response to a query about Peace Corps and information from Alana DeJoseph, Producer of the Peace Corps historic Documentary, A Towering Task: “Dear Alana and Joanne: Thanks for Alana’s of March 30, 2023. She is certainly keeping me busy these days as I hurtle toward 90. I have maintained a file with respect to charges and publications about the Peace Corps that may jeopardize Peace Corps volunteers. I do not warrant its completeness. Sarge never wanted to have a security office, as such, in the Peace Corps. He assigned such issues to me, and I generally handled them personally without delegation to other lawyers. Consequently, I was the Peace Corps liaison to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and so forth. The General Counsel’s office also screened Peace Corps volunteer and employee applicants who . . .

“It’s time to embrace community-led conservation . . ., ” Audrey Moreng (Fiji)

May 17 2023

“. . . vs. the colonial kind” (a commentary) by Audrey Moreng (Fiji 2018-2000) 15 May 2023 Conservation NGOs often enter countries like Fiji and advise local and Indigenous communities on how to protect their land and sea territories, or worse, acquire land and preclude the traditional residents from it. More NGOs are embracing community-led conservation, though, and we must embrace this, a new op-ed by a former Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji argues. “Fiji does not need new ideas on how to protect their ‘iqoliqoli’ (marine areas). Instead, Fiji has a lot to teach the rest of the world,” the author writes. This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. When I lived on the remote island of Beqa, in Fiji, I watched as foreign-based NGOs entered villages and told Fijians how to live their lives, saying things like . . .

Does Peace Corps Refute False Information? Evidently not.

May 16 2023

When an errorous statement is published about the Peace Corps and our experience knows the statement is not true, what should the response be? A professor had written a book about federal agencies and included the Peace Corps with glowing praise, but he also wrote that only men were sent to Puerto Rico for Outward Bound Training. I had no success in convincing him to include that women also went to Puerto Rico for that vigorous training. More recently, an RPCV friend explained to me that she had received an inquiry from a student in Europe writting about the history of Peace Corps. He had learned in a conference that Peace Corps had intervened in the Netherlands in 1962 and stayed for ten years He later said it found the same information in an AI website. That statement about Peace Corps is not true. It was time to query . . .