John Lewis

Letters, emails, Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram comments: Readers respond to the stories in words and images in our fall 2020 edition. We’re happy to continue the conversation.Write us: worldview@peacecorpsconnect.org
 

Renew, retool, return?

I suspect the Peace Corps will see a renewal following the Biden administration. Service to our country and promoting peace, prosperity, and democracy will take on new importance. It should be a promising future for the Peace Corps.

Ben Kasper
Somalia 1964–66

I struggle to see how it is ethical to send PCVs into different countries considering that America has no control over the virus right now, a huge number of Americans have the virus, and Volunteers will likely be sent to areas that may not have the best health facilities. My concern is for the host countries and people living in the communities where the PCVs will be stationed. 

Jessica Mazzoni
Zambia 2015–17

“How many of you…?” JFK at the Union (and the Cow Palace)

I used to pass by a plaque in the University of Michigan Student Union steps marking this spot twice a day. One day there was a sign taped to it announcing a Peace Corps recruiting session in the International Center. There were RPCVs in attendance to share their personal experiences ... and four awesome years later I was back in the same room, doing the same.

Assuming the Peace Corps survives, as I approach retirement I’m considering going back for another round.

Thomas Chamberlin
Guatemala 1982–85

I’ve heard about this speech for years. This is the first time I’ve actually heard it. Entertaining and inspiring!

John Riley
Gineau-Bissau 1997–98

I was working in the oil fields of eastern Venezuela when Jack Kennedy was killed. It made a deep impression on me; especially moving was the reaction of the Venezuelan people who considered him as one of their own. I subsequently resigned my job, went to Washington, walked into Peace Corps and was hired on the spot to become desk officer for Venezuela. Later I was sent to Brazil as associate director. Years later I ended up as Peace Country Director in Tunisia. The Peace Corps years were rich in experience and without doubt were the most challenging and rewarding years of my life.
Charles Graham
Associate Country Director, Brazil 1966–68; Country Director, Tunisia 1981–83

I was inspired by that very speech and 20 years later served as a Volunteer in the Philippines. Over the years since then, I’ve given many presentations in schools on my Peace Corps experience and promoted Peace Corps service.

Catherine Saffian
The Philippines 1981

I always liked Kennedy’s sense of humor … like when he said “I graduated from Harvard … the Michigan of the East” and “This is the longest short speech I ever gave.”

Jeffrey Walsh
South Africa 2016–18

I am grateful for the Peace Corps services rendered to my birth country, Malaysia. I benefited much academically and personally. Diane was my maths teacher then at Penang Technical Institute in 1968. Thank you and God bless America.

Allen Ong via Facebook

I taught for two years in a beautiful country that was full of hope and progress. The people in Charikar made me feel like their daughter, their sister, their friend.

Pat Emme
Afghanistan 1965–67

Without doubt the establishment of the Peace Corps and the Fulbright Program are the most important public and international policy in the history of the United States.

Sami Jamil Jadallah

Founder and Executive Director at New Initiatives Foundation

Today I was asked by a vendor wanting to find me a discount whether I served in the military. I responded as I usually do to that question, “No, but I served my country in the Peace Corps.” I think for the first time I heard from a vendor, “Thank you for your service.”

Bill Francisco
Ecuador 1989–91

I joined because I thought I could make the world a better place. I came back a better person.

Marie Russo
Cameroon 1968–70

Shriver Award Well Earned!

When I served in Guatemala in the 1980s it was dangerous to even teach indigenous people to read, let alone foster democratic involvement and economic and environmental justice. Well done, Mateo Paneitz.

Thomas Chamberlin
Guatemala 1982–85

Long Way Home is a great organization. Congratulations, Mateo!

Joanna Guzman
Guatemala 1986–90

In Memoriam: John Lewis

John Lewis: When I first met John Lewis, it was in the late 1970s, when I worked at ACTION, Nixon’s attempt to hide JFK’s agency called Peace Corps, which under ACTION became International Operations, with VISTA and other volunteer programs under Domestic Operations. He was associate director when I met him. He and his work have made the world a better place. We will miss him! 

Karen Keefer
Nigeria 1966–68, Liberia 1968

May his soul rest in perfect peace.
Muhammed Touray

In Memoriam: Joseph Blatchford

He was director when I was the training center director in Puerto Rico in 1970–72. Also a very good tennis player. Sad news that he has left us.

K. Richard Pyle

He was a good man who helped Peace Corps survive during a politically difficult period. Rest in peace.

Frank Almaguer
Staff, Belize 1974–76; Country Director, Honduras 1976–79

Darlene Grant on her task to help shape “a more just and equitable Peace Corps”

Illustration by Edward Rooks

At a time of national reckoning with racial injustice — and the Peace Corps has heard calls from Volunteers to do better in confronting systemic racism as it affects the agency — a new top level advisor has come on board to lead work to create “a more just and equitable Peace Corps.” Darlene Grant’s official title is senior advisor to Director Jody Olsen. The excerpted Q&A below gives a sense of the scope of her work. You can read the full version on the Peace Corps website.

Some background on Dr. Grant: 18 years as a professor of social work at the University of Texas at Austin, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in social justice, clinical practice, research methodology, and working with at-risk youth. Named 2006 Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers. Took a leave of absence to serve in Cambodia’s third Peace Corps Volunteer cohort as a teacher and teacher trainer. Then country director in Mongolia and Kosovo.

On volunteering in Cambodia

It challenged everything I had learned from living life as an African American woman whose parents were a part of the great migration of the 1950s — when they traveled from the South to northern cities for opportunities. It challenged everything from my academic pursuits to what I taught as a professor about empathy, resilience, social justice, diversity, power, privilege, and oppression.

It challenged everything from my academic pursuits to what I taught as a professor about empathy, resilience, social justice, diversity, power, privilege, and oppression.

The people-to-people work of a Peace Corps Volunteer — living at the level of the community in which you serve, building relationships in the face of daily cross-cultural misunderstanding (that, in my case, included helping others overcome stereotypes related to the package that I come in) affirmed my commitment to my profession as it intersects with the mission of the Peace Corps. It solidified my passion for this work.

As a country director

It is from my own personal experience as a Volunteer and my professional framework that I have encouraged Volunteers — when they feel their work or presence is not valued — to get back to their why. Why do you want to do meaningful work? Why did you join the Peace Corps? It is my firm belief that if you can get back to your why, and if you use the staff and peer resources around you, you will tap into your core resilience. 

As senior advisor

My primary role is to listen to and advise through the filter of my experience as a clinical social work practitioner; professor-researcher focused on anti-violence, anti-poverty, anti-racism, and oppression; Returned Peace Corps Volunteer; and former country director. I want to create a space where I can truly listen to people’s stories and recommendations on behalf of the agency. I aim to collaborate with the Peace Corps’ Task Force on Diversity and Inclusion to connect the dots in terms of attitudes, policies, and practices that deliberately or inadvertently put up barriers toward attaining the richest possible diversity of applicants, Volunteers, and staff from underrepresented groups.

Why do this?

My unique skills make me sensitive to the desire everyone has to be seen, heard, and respected for who they are, their fears, what they have overcome, and their hopes and dreams. Peace Corps changed the trajectory of my life and career to be one focused on meaningful cross-cultural work which, through an agency embedded within our U.S. government, enables me (and us) to work for a better America and a better world. After hearing the sad news of the passing of Representative John Lewis, I have been framing the dozens of calls for Peace Corps leadership to address organizational racial inequities in terms of his life, his fearless commitment, and his devotion to this work. The challenges and importance of anti-oppression, anti-racism, cannot be overstated.

Peace Corps changed the trajectory of my life and career to be one focused on meaningful cross-cultural work which, through an agency embedded within our U.S. government, enables me (and us) to work for a better America and a better world.

As I emphasize the importance of pressing on, no matter how tired, no matter how skeptical that this effort will lead to real change, one quote by Rep. John Lewis particularly resonates: “Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even fairer, more just society.”

As everyone who reads this response has undoubtedly done, I have ruminated on the meaning of the intersection of the pandemic, the evacuation, and the horrendous killings of Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many others. These events have catapulted our society — and this agency — to a tipping point with a feeling of real possibilities for change.

This story appears in the Fall 2020 edition of WorldView magazine. Read the entire magazine for free now in the WorldView app. Here’s how:

STEP 1 - Create an account: Click here and create a login name and password. Use the code DIGITAL2020 to get it free.

STEP 2 - Get the app: For viewing the magazine on a phone or tablet, go to the App Store/Google Play and search for “WorldView magazine” and download the app. Or view the magazine on a laptop/desktop here.

President’s Letter: Now is a time to commit to building a legacy of inclusive peace.

By Glenn Blumhorst
Photo by Summer Gardner / Black RPCV in the DMV

 

What a year this has been! What began as what many of us hoped might be a year of “perfect” 20/20 vision to achieve our new year’s resolutions, business plans, and interpersonal goals turned out to be one of the most challenging years of our lifetime — profoundly so for the Peace Corps community. Though shortly after the beginning of the year, we were concerned by legislation that proposed ending the independence of Peace Corps. Pandemic led to a global evacuation of Volunteers in the spring. And by the time many of you read this message, our country will be turning yet another important page in this chapter of life we are all experiencing together. It is our goal at National Peace Corps Association that, no matter what the outcome of our 2020 elections, our leaders in the White House, House of Representatives, and U.S. Senate collectively support a better and stronger Peace Corps. So let us all lend a hand in transforming the Peace Corps so that we can once again pick up the torch and build peace and friendship abroad — and work together to do the same thing right here at home. 

Civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis wrote: “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society.” While we cannot control what we face in the future, we can and should prepare for the problems we might face in this changed world. And while we certainly cannot undo the perils of the past year, I would be remiss if I did not address what we are doing at NPCA now to help heal old wounds from the past, as well as work to create new possibilities in the future that awaits us.

The skills we learned, backed by our core values, are what we need to be of service at home in the United States.

This past year has, for many of us, opened our hearts and minds to what is happening in our country like never before. When we serve as Peace Corps Volunteers, we venture into unfamiliar territory; we may witness strife or enforced gender roles that we find unsettling. While we adapt to our new environments, learn new languages, and forge new relationships, we may do so amidst wrenching change in the communities where we serve. The skills we learned, backed by our core values, are what we need to be of service at home in the United States — particularly while we have no Volunteers serving anywhere abroad. 
 

August 28, 2020: New affiliate group Black RPCV in the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia) brought together other Returned Peace Corps Volunteers for the commemorative March on Washington. Photo by Summer Gardner / Black RPCV in the DMV

Peace Corps Volunteers are leaders in all walks of life. Being a leader means standing up for what is right, not just walking the walk only when it is comfortable to do so. At NPCA, we have humbly taken a stand in the fight against racial injustice after the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others this year alone. We have held town halls, worked with affiliate groups, participated in marches, and advocated for legislative reform: for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act as well as police reform. And many of us have taken small steps with family members and friends to deepen an understanding of the gravity of what is happening in communities across the country. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we stand for human rights; as peacemakers we also work for justice and to ensure our valuable skill sets are being brought to bear where they are needed most.

August 28, 1963: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Photo by Warren K.Leffler / Library of Congress.

Standing up for the safety of our fellow American citizens is patriotic and exemplifies the leadership that each and every one of us gained during service. We have already done the same for the people in the communities that hosted us as Volunteers. So as this year draws to a close, let’s focus on making it a cornerstone for the good of humanity. Let us continue to have uncomfortable conversations that lead to lifelong connections and hearts that are full: of peace, justice, and understanding. We are only as good as our legacy will allow us to be years from when we all are no longer here. Let’s commit to building a legacy of inclusive peace and justice all around the world.

Glenn Blumhorst is President & CEO of National Peace Corps Association. He welcomes your comments: president@peacecorpsconnect.org
 

This story was first published in WorldView magazine’s Fall 2020 issue. Read the entire magazine for free now in the WorldView app. Here’s how:

STEP 1 - Create an account: Click here and create a login name and password. Use the code DIGITAL2020 to get it free.

STEP 2 - Get the app: For viewing the magazine on a phone or tablet, go to the App Store/Google Play and search for “WorldView magazine” and download the app. Or view the magazine on a laptop/desktop here.