Peace Corps Worldwide

  by Andre Silva Borgen Magazine, November 22, 2021   WESTBURY, New York — The High Atlas Foundation is helping Morocco’s local communities determine how they choose to develop their land and grow out of poverty sustainably. Like those in the northern Atlas Mountains, Morocco’s most vulnerable communities have long suffered from water scarcity, shaky access to land and unregulated grazing rights. These hardships make it difficult for many individual planters to harvest profitable yields on their produce and further strain their labors. Also, their reliance on traditional and overplanted crops like barley, corn and dates deliver low profits. Additionally, they exasperate a low diversity of fruits and vegetables in the poorest of the nation’s regions. While Morocco’s red fruit production saw an increase of 84% last year, many of the nation’s poorest farmers were not included in the agricultural boom. Yet, one organization is working to reverse this in a new sustainable development model, improving . . .

  Speech on peace delivered by President John F. Kennedy at American University on 10 June 1963     President Anderson, members of the faculty, board of trustees, distinguished guests, my old colleague, Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree through many years of attending night law school, while I am earning mine in the next 30 minutes, ladies and gentlemen: It is with great pride that I participate in this ceremony of the American University, sponsored by the Methodist Church, founded by Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, and first opened by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This is a young and growing university, but it has already fulfilled Bishop Hurst’s enlightened hope for the study of history and public affairs in a city devoted to the making of history and to the conduct of the public’s business. By sponsoring this institution of higher learning for all who wish to learn, . . .

The first Peace Corps Conference of RPCVs was help in 1965 at the State Department. As Shriver said to the gathering at the opening session. “Who would have thought three years ago the Peace Corps  was going to take over the State Department?” They did for their first reunion called CITIZENS IN A TIME OF CHANGE> 1965 RPCV Conference Report Low-Res    

  We are currently hiring for the following headquarters positions:   Chief Operating Officer Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 Accounting and Evaluation Manager Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 Communications and Development Associate Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021 Training Coordinator Deadline to apply is December 10, 2021

Kwamboka’s Inquiry by Arthur Dobrin (Kenya 1965-67) Nsemia Inc. Publishers 146 pages March 2017 $8.99 (Kindle); $25.73 (Paperback)     Reviewed by Stephen Foehr (Ethiopia 1965-67) The opening scene: Funeral preparations in a churchyard for a murder victim, the respected co-founder of a Kenyan school, who was inexplicably shot to death in her home. Nothing was stolen. Inspector James Dingiria, from Nairobi, outside the district, was sent to investigate. This is the set-up of Arthur Dobrin’s novel, Kwamboka’s Inquiry, which is much about Kenyan society as a murder mystery. Dobrin has an acute eye for physical details that puts the reader on the scene, and an understanding of the underlying social, tribal, and economic tensions that inform the story. He and his wife served in the Peace Corps in Kenya, which made them first-hand witnesses. Initially, the murder was thought to be the work of the Sungu Sungu, originally formed . . .

Peace Corps has been working to establish a program in Vietnam since  2004 and today much has been done in anticipation of Peace Corps in Vietnam next year.  Read: “Annual Report July 2020 to July 2021 Building a Foundation” Peace Corps Vietnam From that report: “The Peace Corps opening in Viet Nam represents decades of work involving hundreds of people with a collective vision for promoting closer people-to-people ties between the United States and Viet Nam. In 2004, Le Van Bang Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs formally invited Peace Corps to Vietnam. Two years later, Peace Corps sent a four-person assessment team led by John L. Williams, the then Peace Corps Thailand Country Director, to Viet Nam to conduct a new country assessment. The report concluded that Viet Nam would provide a welcoming environment in which Volunteers would be successful. On May 24, 2016, during President Obama’s only official trip to . . .

Memorial Service          November 16, 2021 Time: 12 pm ET Location: Washington National Cathedral Address: 3101 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016  live stream link to the service for anyone who can’t travel to D.C. but wish to join online is here: https://youtu.be/qbjbNMRznrE W. Dennis Grubb  Member of Colombia One group of Peace Corps Volunteers (1961-1963), Dennis peacefully entered into eternal rest on October 25, 2021. The Peace Corps, education, global development, and the church have propelled his lifelong service to help others in developing nations on five continents.  “I have worked in 23 countries, which included some of the world’s poorest nations. I experienced suffering and plain simple happiness first hand. I have left many of these countries leaving behind most of my belongings, as I felt the poor people needed my clothes and shoes more than I did.” (sermon St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 2014). Sargent . . .

  Peace Corps Volunteers Fall Through the Cracks of a Student Loan Fix “Your Money” By Ron Lieberm New York Times Nov. 13, 2021   A deserving group of dedicated people has been left out of the government’s latest patch for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.   When the Education Department announced fixes for its deeply dysfunctional Public Service Loan Forgiveness program last month, hundreds of thousands of long-suffering borrowers were suddenly given a chance at the kind of relief that the federal government had long promised them. But a small, highly deserving group was left out, even though its volunteers passed through a particularly venerable government service program: the Peace Corps. Many Peace Corps alumni say they — like others who are now getting help, including members of the armed forces — received bad advice that set back their attempts to wipe away their loans. But the federal government hasn’t seen . . .

  The Serpent of the Nile: A Novel by Robert Gribbin (Kenya 1968-70) Independently Published August, 2021 138 pages $13.99 (Paperback), $3.99 (Kindle) This novel is about an RPCV who is now a Nairobi based free-lance journalist pursuing stories of corruption, arms smuggling and human trafficking in war-torn South Sudan. He becomes caught up in the violence and intrigue that plagues the world’s most desperate nation. Set against the grim reality and history of the region, this novel accurately portrays the despair, hope and aspirations of South Sudan’s beleaguered people. Reviewed by Alan Johnston (Kenya 1968-71) • The last place that you want to end up is in a prison cell in some remote part of Africa, whether that cell is controlled by a rebel group, an opposition warlord, or a government.  Especially if you happen to be a journalist. Bad things happen in those cells. Yet that is exactly . . .