|
|
|
|
|
 One Hundred House Parties
Want to help build a broad, grassroots movement to call for a bigger, better, bolder Peace Corps? If so, support the MorePeaceCorps campaign by participating in one of the 100 House Parties taking place nationwide.
On September 6, 2008, the MorePeaceCorps campaign will be throwing 100 house parties across the United States. The main purpose is to generate thousands of postcards to lawmakers from all fifty states, urging doubled funding for Peace Corps. With 20 parties claimed within several days of the campaign's launch, we still have 80 parties left to host. There are numerous ways you can help out, whether by hosting a party, arranging for donations, coordinating publicity, writing letters and/or op-ed pieces, or simply attending your local house party. Email us if you want to host or attend a MorePeaceCorps house party, or are interested in volunteering.
|
 Listen to this: NPCA on New York Public Radio
On Monday, July 14th, NPCA President Kevin Quigley (Thailand 76-79), MorePeaceCorps Coordinator Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 01-03) and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Judith McGuire (Nigeria 65-67) were interviewed on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820.
Kevin, Rajeev, and Judith answered questions on President Kennedy's original vision of the Peace Corps, how the agency has change over the years and the MorePeaceCorps campaign's goal of a bigger, better, bolder Peace Corps for the future.
The segment, entitled "The Future of the Peace Corps," has been archived and can be listened to through the WNYC website. The Leonard Lopate Show is also available as a podcast through iTunes.
>> Listen to "The Future of the Peace Corps"
|
Put your Peace Corps Experience to Work: Become a Mentor!
NPCA and Mercy Corps created the NPCA/Global Citizen Corps Mentoring Program through which Returned Peace Corps Volunteers provide key advice, support and mentoring to exceptional high school student leaders selected each year to join Mercy Corps' Global Citizens Corps (GCC) Leadership Program.
The program provides a unique opportunity for RPCVs to help educate, inspire and empower young people from across the U.S. to fight global poverty - and it's all done online! By mentoring tomorrow's leaders, we support the Third Goal of Peace Corps. We foster the next generation of Peace Corps Volunteers. We keep the flame alive.
|
Got Video? Join the Climate Change Video Project
As part of our effort to give voice to impoverished nations threatened by climate change, we are gathering video testimonies from members of the Peace Corps community.
Many in the Peace Corps community have had first-hand experiences with climate change and the potentially devastating effects on developing nations. Similarly, many are aware of the positive actions taking place to lower human produced global warming gas emissions all over the world.
Can you help? We are forming a working group to spearhead this important project. We are looking for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who are willing to share their personal stories about climate change and clean energy. We are also seeking those in our community with filming and editing experience.
|
Upcoming in WorldView
The summer edition of WorldView Magazine, "Planet, Interrupted," is ready and on its way! The issue is dedicated to the climate change crisis and the action members of the Peace Corps community are taking to combat it.
WorldView editors are also currently compiling articles for the Fall 2008 issue which will focus on the theme of "Peace Corps and the Next Administration." In three years, Peace Corps will celebrate its 50th anniversary. How has it fared? What is its legacy - and its future? Can a bigger, better and bolder Peace Corps be part of an overall "smart power" effort to restore U.S. standing in the world to better help address pressing global problems?
|
Korean Government to Offer Return Visits to Korea
The Korean government, through its Embassy here in the US, has announced its intention to support a number of return visits to Korea for various groups of former Peace Corps volunteers. The government will pay for in-country accommodations and will host a number of special events and receptions. It will also facilitate visits to Korean cultural sites, opportunities for volunteers to return to their sites of service, and opportunities to learn about Korea's incredible progress over the last thirty to forty years.
The first visit is scheduled from October 5-11, 2008. If you would be interested in participating in this or subsequent visits, be sure you have responded to the "lost volunteer" form, indicating your interest.
|
2008 Board of Directors Election Results
Congratulations to Joe Hindman, Michael K. Baldwin and Chuck Ludlum for their election to the NPCA Board of Directors! They will be representing the West U.S. geographic region, the Southern Tier U.S. geographic region and the Asia and Pacific country of service region, respectively.
The newest elected representatives will begin their three-year term on the NPCA board at the October 3, 2008 Board of Directors meeting in San Francisco, CA.
|
President Toledo Supports MorePeaceCorps
We are thrilled to announce that former President of Peru Alejandro Toledo has signed on as a goodwill ambassador for the MorePeaceCorps campaign.
President Toledo grew up in Chimbote, Peru where, as a teen he befriended two community development Peace Corps Volunteers. He credits these volunteers with encouraging and supporting his pursuit of higher education. President Toledo is now recognizing those who helped him by joining us in the call to double the Peace Corps.
|
ServiceNation Summit
NPCA has joined 100 other organizations on the Organizing Committee for the ServiceNation Summit September 11 and 12 in New York City. The ServiceNation Summit seeks to bring together powerful political, community, and corporate leaders from around the country in support of creating opportunities for all Americans to serve our country and solve the critical issues at hand.
The forum will include presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, financial titans, social activists, grassroots organizers, and university presidents who will discuss the critical importance of expanding community and national service in the future of America and craft a Declaration of Service.
| |
SEND TO A FRIEND
|
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR e-NEWSLETTERS
|
|
HOT WEATHER CALLS FOR A COOL TANK TOP
Show your Peace Corps Connection!
Get all your Peace Corps-related logo gear in our online store
|
SEE YOU IN SEPTEMBER!
The NPCA E-News will not be published in August. Look for us in your inbox on September 18.
|
... with NPCA
Are you a person with Peace Corps experience who uses the professional online
networking community LinkedIn? Well we have
created an NPCA group on LinkedIn...and you're invited.
Joining
will allow you to:
- Reach out
- Accelerate career/business through referrals
- Know more than a name - view professional profiles of others in the Peace Corps community
Join NPCA's LinkedIn group
|
PEACE CORPS PEOPLE WANTED
Visit NPCA's online Career Center to see who is hiring. And if you're thinking about working for the U.S. State Department, go to www.worldviewmagazine.com and click on their banner ad.
|
SHARE YOUR VIEW OF THE WORLD
If you or someone you know is living overseas and interested in writing about what's happening around you, consider submitting to WorldView magazine. Contact form and writer's guidelines are available on our website.
|
|
|
|
COME TO FORT COLLINS!
Registration is underway for this summer's three-day celebration of the Peace Corps and the people who have made it so successful over the last five decades. The party begins Friday, August 22 in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The weekend includes a mix of food and socializing, plus intellectual, artistic and musical activities. A juried photograph show is being planned with pictures taken by RPCVs in their host countries, either as volunteers or during visits afterwards. Also, Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh will lead the massive Symphony for 1,000 Drums for only the second time since he composed it in 2006.
A modest registration fee for the weekend includes access to all interactive dialogs, speeches and concerts on Friday and Sunday, plus all those opportunities to celebrate with fellow RPCVs. Friends and family members (and their drums) are welcome too.
Click here to check out the full schedule and register.
|
|
|
|
RPCV MENTORING
Sometimes the hardest thing about Peace Corps is adjusting to life back home. That's why the NPCA, in conjunction with the Peace Corps, created this unique program to help returning Volunteers link up with RPCV mentors. Sixteen NPCA member groups are already matching those recent RPCVs with the perfect mentor. Are you one?
For more information or to apply for the program, click here. | |
| Disclaimer.
Copyright (c) 2008 NATIONAL PEACE CORPS ASSOCIATION, All rights reserved.
|
|
|
National Peace Corps Association | 1900 L Street NW | Suite 404 | Washington | DC | 20036
|
|
More Peace Corps: Background
OVERVIEW
The More Peace Corps campaign explicitly addresses the relatively small scale of Peace Corps and its resultant modest impact on development.
More Peace Corps means having the resources to respond to the more than 20 countries that have requested programs for which there are insufficient funds. It also means having the resources so that the many Americans who would like to serve overseas can do so if given the opportunity.
More Peace Corps does not simply mean an expansion of the numbers of Peace Corps volunteers, although that is part of it.
More Peace Corps may mean revising the Peace Corps model in ways to better take advantage of the significant technological and demographic changes that have occurred in the 46 years since Peace Corps was launched.
More Peace Corps will consider how best to adapt Peace Corps so that it is much more effective at addressing the problem of poverty. This will probably require significant innovation and thus some risk.
Finally, More Peace Corps will be about promoting an attitude of openness to and engagement with the world. Peace Corps is one way to do this...but greater participation in other "Peace Corps-like" experiences such as student study abroad programs and travel volunteerism is also needed.
Given the declining perceptions about our country, as tracked by opinion polls like the
Pew Global Attitude or the Freedom from Terror surveys, we must work assiduously to restore our role as a trusted leader addressing the major global challenges.
For the next President, Peace Corps will likely be part of this effort given its reputation as being one of America's best faces abroad. The More campaign is designed to ensure this happens.
NPCA believes we have a real opportunity to have the next President embrace our goals. For example, RPCV and Senator Chris Dodd has spoken eloquently about the importance of service and the need to expand Peace Corps.
In a speech this fall, Senator John McCain issued a call to service reminiscent of a call from nearly 5 decades ago. He said that "After 9/11, when America was united, I wouldn't have asked Americans to go shopping or take a trip. I would have asked Americans to serve, find ways to serve, and provide ways to serve. I would ask people - first and foremost - to consider joining the military. I would have expanded the Peace Corps. I would have expanded AmeriCorps."
SPEECHES
Speeches by NPCA President Kevin Quigley:
Speech by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd:
Here is a pdf on More Peace Corps.
Comment on More Peace Corps
Email from John Chromy (India 3 RPCV) to Kevin Quigley, President of RPCV.org.
Kevin, good story--congratulations on getting it published (Ed: note: refers to article published in the Baltimore Sun 27 Nov 07 and not available any longer on line). We need a
specific follow-up plan to make this change a reality:
-
with the US congress
-
in the transition to a new administration next November-
December. We cannot have the new administration appoint a PC Director
who is satisfied with administering the current Peace Corps
Peace corps would get a lot more funding from congress if it was doing
one or more of the following:
-
helping people after disasters or in refugee camps
-
A PCV in every village of Liberia helping the communities re-build
from scratch that nation that destroyed itself.
-
A PC teacher in every school in Haiti helping the next generation of
Haitians not fall into the same trap of hopelessness
-
a hundred PCVs in the refugee camps of Darfur connecting their home
communities to support the future of these refugee women and children
-
PCVs working side by side with an Indian colleague in schools in the
slums of India bringing Dell and Micro-soft sponsored computer
technology training to children and young people so they can leap from
the slums to India's techno-world
-
Americans in the form of PCVs working in every village of north and
central Afghanistan helping each village develop its own future,
teaching their kids computers and connecting them via satellite to
sister towns and villages around the world.
Kevin--these are just some ideas, I would welcome others from other
RPCVs etc.
And how do we get this on the agenda of the next administration? How do
we find a PC Director with this kind of vision/enthusiasm/ideas worthy
of Loret Ruppe and Sargent Shriver?
John
|
India 21 Reunion in Minneapolis summer 2008
India 21 Volunteers will gather in Minneapolis, MN for a reunion the weekend of August 23-24, 2008.
We were a Rural Public Health Group who served in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
FFI contact Patty Connelly
413 River Street
Minneapolis, MN 55401
Phone: 612-375-1938
email: p.connelly@att.net
|
|
INDIAN GUEST WORKERS PROTEST MODERN-DAY SLAVERY 22 Mar 2008
Indian guest workers will hold a series of actions in the coming days to
pressure Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen to take legal action
against their employer for human trafficking and forcing workers
into slavery-like working conditions. The workers claim that
recruiters for Signal International -- a marine construction
company -- promised them decent wages and ?green cards? but,
when they arrived in the US, were forced into "substandard
housing with 24 men crammed into a small room for which they
each were charged more than $1,000 a month," reports James
Parks on the AFL-CIO Weblog:
(http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/22/indian-workers-say-they-are-treated-like-slaves-at-mississippi-shipyard/).
The workers from India - who filed a lawsuit against the company
last week - also claim they paid a $20,000 fee to recruiters in
exchange for permanent US residency documents, but were only
given a 10-month work visa, Parks reports. The Indian workers
will hold a press conference in Dupont Circle today at noon and
will rally outside the White House on Monday. Watch UNION CITY!
|
Peace Corps At 50
|
Project Fact Sheet
|
|
Project Title:
|
Peace Corps At 50 (www.peacecorpsat50.org)
|
|
Purpose:
|
To create four books of stories to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps and to maintain a website with additional stories until 2011 and beyond.
|
|
Scope:
|
Nonfiction stories that reflect the full range of experience in the Peace Corps, from the hilarious to the grim. Each book will be divided into sections that focus loosely on Expectations, Peace Corps Tasks, Unexpected Shadows, and the Context of History. If the Peace Corps were a person, these stories would be her memoir.
|
|
Editors:
|
Jane Albritton (India, 67-69), Series Editor, Editor for Asia and the Pacific
Pat Alter (Paraguay, 70-72), Editor for Central and South American and the Caribbean
Jay Chen (Kazakhstan, 2005+), Editor for After the Cold War (including Central Asia and Eastern Europe)
Dennis Cordell (Chad, 68-70), Editor for Africa and the Middle East
(biographical information on the editors available at www.peacecorpsat50.org)
|
|
Contributors:
|
RPCVs, Peace Corps staff and trainers from 1961 to the present
|
|
Guidelines:
|
Writers' guidelines available at www.peacecorpsat50.org
|
|
Time frame:
|
Deadline for story submissions, March 1, 2008
|
|
Peace Corps Fact Sheet
|
|
(source: www.peacecorps.gov)
|
|
Peace Corps Officially Established:
|
March 1, 1961
|
|
50th Anniversary Year:
|
2011
|
|
Total number of volunteers and trainees to date (2007):
|
187,000
|
|
Total number of countries served:
|
139
|
|
|
Unite For Sight Fifth Annual International Health & Development Conference
Building Global Health For Today and Tomorrow
April 12-13, 2008
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Register Today at http://www.uniteforsight.org/conference/2008
Join 2,000 conference attendees and 180 speakers for a stimulating international conference.
Unite for Sight: A Nonprofit Organization Featured Weekly on CNN International
Keynote Addresses By: Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Sonia Sachs, Dr. Susan Blumenthal, and Dr. Jim Yong Kim
Plus More Than 180 Featured Speakers
Register For Conference - EARLY BIRD RATE ( $75 students, $100 all others)
REGISTER NOW TO SECURE LOWEST RATE. RATE INCREASES AFTER JANUARY 30th!
Who should attend? Anyone interested in international health, public health, international development,
medicine, nonprofits, eye care, philanthropy, microfinance, social entrepreneurship, bioethics, economics,
anthropology, health policy, advocacy, environmental health, service-learning, medical education, and public service.
Keynote Addresses
- "Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities in the 21st Century," Susan Blumenthal, MD, MPA, Former US Assistant Surgeon General; Senior Advisor For Health and Medicine; Former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown School of Medicine and Tufts University Medical Center
- "Bridging the Implementation Gap in Global Health," Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD,Co-Founder, Partners in Health; Director, Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights; Francois Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health; Chair, Department of Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Former HIV/AIDS Director at World Health Organization
- "Common Wealth: Economics For A Crowded Planet," Jeffrey Sachs, PhD, Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University; Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, Professor of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University; Special Advisor to Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon
- "Millennium Village Project", Sonia Ehrlich Sachs,, MD, MPH, Health Coordinator, Millennium Villages
Plus 180+ Speakers. Full List and Conference Schedule
|
|
|
