racial injustice

Our commitment to empathy and justice — around the world, and here at home

By Glenn Blumhorst

Our nation is reeling. How could it not be? More than 100,000 Americans are dead from COVID-19. More than 40 million have filed for unemployment since mid-March. And last week we witnessed the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of a white police officer. 

These are not unrelated tragedies. And George Floyd’s death is only the latest in a terrible litany of unarmed Black men and women who have been killed. We condemn the actions that led to his death, just as we condemn discrimination and violence against all Black people — including members of the Peace Corps community.

The toll of coronavirus has hit black and brown communities particularly hard. So have job losses. And in a time of global pandemic, we’re faced once more with a brutal truth articulated years ago by Sargent Shriver, who founded the Peace Corps: “We must also treat the disease of racism itself.” 

How do we do that? Fundamentally, those of us in the Peace Corps community embark on service as Volunteers to promote world peace and understanding. This is our world, right here. One where empathy and justice must guide us — as we head out into the world, as we bring it back home. Our commitment to that doesn’t stop at the border. As National Peace Corps Association Board Director Corey Griffin has often put it, “By living out Peace Corps values here at home, we’ll have a better society, one that honors and celebrates our differences.”

A moral issue

Friday marked the birth of John F. Kennedy, who famously offered the challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” A crucial time to ask that question again.

And it happens that on May 30, 1964, Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, spoke of the challenge he saw facing America then: “Although poverty and injustice remain, we have today, for the first time, the legal and material resources to end them.”

So have we? No. But those words ring true in another respect. Put together Kennedy’s challenge and Shriver’s assessment all those decades ago. One thing we can do for our country now is seek — once and for all — to end racism. We need concerted and peaceful action. And, make no mistake, we need courage and hope in these dark times. 

Shriver understood the challenge and the stakes. “Today’s central issue is a moral issue: the issue of commitment,” he said. “If we fail, it will be a failure of commitment.” We can eliminate unemployment and poverty, he said, and we can ensure security against the ravages of disease and old age, use science to benefit all people, and ensure that Black Americans can be “fully American.” 

His words merit quoting at length:

These are not easy problems. I have seen the face of poverty and idleness in the mines of West Virginia. I have come face to face with racial hatred on the South Side of Chicago: Catholics stoning fellow Catholics on the steps of a church because they were Black. In the last few years, I have traveled five hundred thousand miles around the world seeing at first hand the deep barriers of culture, belief, prejudice, and superstition which divide us from our fellow man.

But I have also seen the power of commitment, the individual commitment of thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers doing more than any of us can realize to refashion our relationships to the rest of the world. The Peace Corps is proof that deeply committed individuals can have a profound impact on the most difficult and intransigent of problems. Fuller proof is found in the civil rights movement. 

Shriver also understood the feeling of powerlessness when faced with enormous challenges.

What can we do about it? you ask. There is much you can do. For the need is not merely for laws or Presidential action, but for the self-organization of society on a large scale to solve the problems … Our books are full of good laws and regulations, but … hypocrisy and racial hatred and the apathy of decent citizens have made a mockery of American justice and equal opportunity.

We must now show that we have the personal commitment to use our wealth and strength in the construction of a good society at home and throughout the world.

As our friends at the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute note: When Shriver spoke of the idea of “self-organization,” he was calling for a community to organize and lead from within — and recognizing that big problems could be solved by strengthening understanding and collaboration on a large scale.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers across the country are convening virtually to ask how we can act together to address racial injustice. I encourage you to join the conversation. To listen, and learn more about organizations you can work with for social justice. To raise your voice. And to help others do so. 

You can help ensure underrepresented members of our communities have a vote. Here is a list of resources for those who want to help with voter registration — from HipHop Caucus to Rock the Vote. And contact your elected representatives; let them know this matters to you. 

We should also take heed of these words by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” 

Glenn Blumhorst is President and CEO of National Peace Corps Association. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala (1988-1991). You can read Sargent Shriver’s speech in full here.

Address by the Director of the Peace Corps to the July 2020 global ideas summit: Peace Corps Connect to the Future

By Jody Olsen

On July 18, 2020, National Peace Corps Association hosted Peace Corps Connect to the Future, a global ideas summit. NPCA invited Peace Corps Director Jody Olsen to speak. She was introduced by Glenn Blumhorst, President and CEO of National Peace Corps Association. Her remarks come a week after Peace Corps signed a historic agreement for launching a program with Viet Nam in 2022. And they come as the COVID-19 pandemic makes the future for all international work uncertain.

Here is a transcript and video of the introduction and her remarks.

Introduction

Glenn Blumhorst: I just want to say today, it's just such an honor and a privilege to have Director Olsen with us. I know she has a busy schedule, she has a lot going on. And she's very busy trying to get Volunteers back into the field as soon as possible — as soon as the conditions permit. But she's been really in tune with the community, I would say, attentive to the needs and expectations of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who were evacuated, and she has certainly paid attention to what's going on in our community and in our country. 

So it's really a pleasure for me to introduce her today. She's going to share a few words with us. The 20th, director of the Peace Corps, Jody Olsen, who was sworn in in March 2018, started her service with the Peace Corps community as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in 1966 to 68. She has held multiple leadership positions at the Peace Corps, including headquarters and in the field. She was once the Acting Director of the Peace Corps, the Deputy Director, she has been a chief of staff. She has been a regional director, and she has been a country director in Togo. But let me say: Those are certainly strong credentials for somebody to be the current Peace Corps Director. 

I know Jody personally, and I know her very well, and her values and her commitments. And I have to say, there's no better person for the job right now than Jody Olsen. I know that Jody cares deeply about the Peace Corps itself, about Peace Corps Volunteers. And when it came to make the evacuation — or the decision to evacuate the Volunteers, and evacuate the Volunteers, I trusted Jody. I knew that she was doing what she felt was in the best interest of the agency and the Peace Corps Volunteers themselves. They all arrived home safe and sound. And their lives interrupted back home weren't the same, but she handled that situation like no one of us would ever would have wanted to have to had to do. I'm so grateful for having her at the helm of the Peace Corps itself. And I'm very grateful for her two decades of service to the Peace Corps community. So I'm proud and honored and privileged to introduce my colleague and friend, and our esteemed Director of the Peace Corps. Dr. Josephine "Jody" Olsen.

Peace Corps Today

Watch: Jody Olsen’s remarks at Peace Corps Connect to the Future

Jody Olsen: It's a real pleasure to be here, even virtually, thank you all so much. A special thank you to Glenn, a longtime friend, colleague, and a person I admire, as well as everyone at the National Peace Corps Association. Thank you, thank you for all you do. Thank you for all your support — everything that you do.

I also want to note, at this moment, as we just took a moment of silence — that many years ago, I was lucky enough to hear Nelson Mandela speak and even shake his hand. I didn't want to do anything with my hand for quite a while afterward. I was so proud of that moment. But what I remember from that moment was his entire speech was about hope, was about the future, and about what can be accomplished. He never appeared angry. He always appeared strong and hopeful that entire evening. And knowing his background, I carried that, and I have tried to carry that with me ever since.

When I was in college, I happened to be standing on Constitution Avenue, as people moved forward for the March on Washington in August 1963, which included Congressman Lewis — very young at that time. That march, that afternoon, so affected me. And as I've had the pleasure of reading and seeing and hearing and understanding Congressman Lewis's journey, his leadership that he has given this country, I too, feel very sad at this moment and want to make sure that I honor a national icon and national leader for all of us.

I want to begin — oh, first, I do want to thank Katie Long! That was so wonderful, what you sang, and I might just say, Katie, that you probably said better than I'm going to say — a lot of what I'm feeling right at the moment. And I'm hoping that the future and the excitement you had, that reference to the future that you, Glenn, also had, that I can continue to carry that with me as I speak for a few minutes this afternoon. I want to thank NPCA, the board, the staff, and members, for all you do to support the Peace Corps mission and goals, and the incredible support you give Peace Corps and your fellow RPCVs during this very challenging time. You note, as you see, the title is Peace Corps Today. Now there's a reason for this title. I want to say "Peace Corps Future," "Peace Corps Going Forward," because this is about the future. And I'm going to be talking about our plans for returning to our global presence. But I have to refer to them as our global future plans exist today: Saturday, July 18. Why do I give a date for this? Even as we're largely in charge of our process for returning, we're not in charge of the virus. It dictates the time. It dictates the place. And in this global pandemic, our time, its time, its place — changes every day.

Even as we're largely in charge of our process for returning, we're not in charge of the virus. It dictates the time. It dictates the place.

So when you listen, we're hoping this is what we can be over this coming year. But this is as of Saturday, July 18th. To the recently evacuated Returned Volunteers who may be here today, and I know that several of you are, I am here for you. We're here for you. As I have talked with many of you, I know that I can't fully appreciate what you have been going through in having to leave your communities with almost no notice, to a return that you hadn't planned. As I have said before, that fateful day, March 15th, just four and a half months ago — that decision to evacuate all Volunteers was the most difficult decision I have ever made in my life. And I think you can understand in that, I have been part of Peace Corps, Peace Corps has been part of me — for now over 54 years. I'm grateful for your service. And we are grateful to NPCA and all the affiliate groups, and all of our partners in service, who have stepped up and supported and continue to support our Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. The Peace Corps mission is still as relevant today as it was 59 years ago.

The idea of Peace Corps — that idea that Volunteers could serve their country for the cause of peace by living and working in other countries — struck a chord with thousands in the early ’60s. And I confess —myself included — 1964 was when I first heard about Peace Corps. And that enthusiasm continues today. We must work together to ensure that the mission continues into the future, that Volunteers return to the field when safely possible. While the mission remains relevant today, the world has changed. We've already been talking about that. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted racial and social economic inequities in our countries — in our country — but in countries abroad as well, including all current Peace Corps countries of service. The pandemic has also highlighted global interconnectedness, and with it an increased need for people who can effectively and sensitively navigate cross-cultural difference to build joy and equitable systems and sustainable peace.

This need speaks directly to our continued relevance, and why we must return to our countries of service as soon as it is safe to do so. We take these few months, this few months of pause in our in-field service, as an opportunity to build into our plans, a strong, self-aware, and equitable environment for all staff and Volunteers. Peace Corps' focused goal, which is fully supported by Congress — let me say that again, which is fully supported by Congress — is to return to a full global presence as soon as we possibly can.

Much uncertainty remains here at home and abroad about when and where we will be able to begin reestablishing our operations overseas. Still a question. I repeat: We don't control the disease or its course, but we do control our process to getting overseas. We have some of the brightest and most committed people on our team working hard to plan for reentry to the field that is strong and sustainable, while assuring the wellbeing of Volunteers, staff, and communities. We have developed a comprehensive, two-part process whereby posts work alongside offices at Peace Corps Headquarters to plan for reentry and to prepare to receive Volunteers. Our host country staff are in place in our 61 countries with critical responsibilities towards our return. Our return begins with an external review process, which assesses a wide range of external factors, both domestic and international, including medical, security, administrative, and logistical criteria that must be just right for us to consider a reentry to a specific country.

The pandemic has also highlighted global interconnectedness, and with it an increased need for people who can effectively and sensitively navigate cross-cultural difference to build joy and equitable systems and sustainable peace.

When a country meets these external review criteria, Peace Corps notifies Congress — an important step — that we are initiating a planning for reentry process, and this triggers the internal review. Our internal review is an exhaustive process by which a post prepares for every part of supporting Peace Corps Volunteers, staff, and communities. It involves everything from our host families to our counterparts, to transportation in country, to precautions in the workplace, and to know how to treat a COVID case if it should arise. There are a multitude of checks and balances in this system because we cannot risk anyone.

The Office of Safety and Security, Health Services, Global Operations, and Regions will each thoroughly review and approve each post's individual plans. The Peace Corps is already working in close partnership with our host country governments, local communities, and in-country stakeholders to ensure that the timing of our return is safe and according to each country's local conditions and requirements. And no two countries are similar.

Multiple mitigation measures will assure that we're respectful of our host country's management of the pandemic, including testing for all Volunteers prior to departure — and a 14-day mandatory quarantine once they arrive. All posts will have an emergency response plan, with detailed guidance on responding to any COVID-19 emergencies that arise. Posts are very eager to welcome Volunteers again for service. We hear this every day. And they are fully engaged in this detailed planning process. We will provide reorientation and training on how to operate in a different environment. And there will be more training and preparation for Volunteers and for staff to manage the different challenges of service during COVID-19. Until the pandemic is fully under control, we must operate in a different manner than we have before. And Glenn alluded to that earlier. And the challenges of Volunteer service are going to differ.

This is about assuring our host governments that we are keeping Volunteers and their host families, counterparts, and communities healthy and safe. As you can guess, a lot of uncertainty remains. We face returning to countries where life, public education, health, agriculture, and food processing, distribution, and other systems and people have been impacted by COVID-19. In addition, and most importantly, people all over the world have been observing, and even participating in racial justice and equity protests, particularly those in the United States. We are navigating a world that is in transition. Simultaneously, each of us as individuals — and so much within myself — we are transitioning in our own personal connection to the issues of race, social justice, and inequality. Given this time to focus and to grow, we will return to our posts with renewed eyes, renewed clarity of what to serve means, and renewed expectations of ourselves. The agency is responding. We are responding. We're taking steps. We're building into and making central to our return to operations a workforce that is representative of the diversity of America by uncovering and removing barriers to equal opportunity for multiple groups, including Black invitees, Volunteers, and employees.

We are navigating a world that is in transition. Simultaneously, each of us as individuals — and so much within myself — we are transitioning in our own personal connection to the issues of race, social justice, and inequality.

These efforts to date have included, but are not limited to, intentional holding of very difficult dialogues throughout the agency globally. Dialogues that are continuing almost daily today and will continue going forward. We have projects that reduce work and service barriers for both staff and Volunteers. We're assessing and strengthening diversity recruitment and strengthening diversity pipelines through new and expanded partnerships, many of which are already coming forward and with which were already engaged. A new agency-wide taskforce on diversity and inclusion in the agency will track our internal progress toward equity and diversity as we return to service, enhancing communication about non-competitive eligibility in the federal government as an opportunity to leverage U.S. government efforts to increase diversity across all federal agencies.

Our taskforce on diversity and inclusion has been charged with leveraging the agency data and all recommendations received to date — from the field, from staff, and I know for many of you as RPCVs — so that we craft and subsequently implement concrete and meaningful strategies for change.

As we face this uncertain world, one thing that is not uncertain is our relevance today. The Peace Corps mission of world peace and friendship has never been more important. And Peace Corps has never been more relevant than it is today.

This begins with how we partner with our countries wherever we serve, and how we earn their trust in returning to service safely — safely for our Volunteers, safely for our staff, and safely for the host country residents and our host country counterparts. As we move towards our 60th anniversary, which begins in October, and navigate these uncertainties, we also pause to celebrate all our Volunteers who have contributed over these past 59 years — and to celebrate the new opportunities and service that lie ahead for all of us.

Just this last week, we signed the implementing agreement between the Peace Corps and the Ministry of Education and Training of Viet Nam to officially established the Peace Corps program in English education in Viet Nam. This has been many years in the making, and a joyful moment for so many people. This historic moment, which also coincided with the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. Viet Nam will be our 143rd country to host Peace Corps Volunteers since the agency was founded. And as I was in Viet Nam in December, I appreciated their excitement. And in fact, it was three of the English teachers that I was spending time with when I talked about Volunteers living with host families — three of the teachers raised their hands and said: "Can I be a host mom? Can I be a host mom?" And I thought whichever country wherever we are, wherever we're going to be, "Can I be a host mom?" — that's what friendship is. That's what families are. The next step in partnership and in cross-cultural exchange and capacity building. This next step will benefit the people of both countries for generations and further demonstrate our relevance today. We are a global organization that can have a significant impact on global challenges. Addressing these global challenges starts with maintaining our focus on getting Volunteers back into the field. That is who we are. However, as I've noted, we're not going back to the field the same as we were before. We're going to go back better. For 59 1/2 years, Peace Corps sought assurances from countries where we serve, that our Volunteers will be safe. We must now be prepared to assure the same countries that we have taken the steps necessary for everyone to be safe.

More than ever before, we and our country counterparts, we and our country leaders in each of our countries, are true partners. Returning better also relies on implementing the improvements that I have highlighted with respect to how we recruit, train, and support the Volunteers that represent us. Peace Corps Volunteers should represent the best of all of us in all our diversity — that best represents us as Americans. Going back — and how we go back — is so important, not just to the countries where we serve, but it is important to the entire world. Because the entire world is watching us. They're waiting. They want to see. We're going back.

We will be humble. We will be better. And we will be stronger for what we have been through together.

As we go back, we will be humble. We will be humble. We will be better. And we will be stronger for what we have been through together. The Peace Corps mission of world peace and friendship is as relevant today as it was in 1961, as I said before. We must work together to ensure that the mission continues into the future, that Volunteers returned to the field when safely possible, and that we take this pause and in the field service as an opportunity to build into our plans a stronger and more equitable environment for all staff and Volunteers. So what is our call to action? What is it for all of us — for me, the agency, our countries, our posts, returning Volunteers — what is it? Our continued relevance and ability to carry our mission only holds true as long as we are able to continually grow and challenge ourselves to set the standard for community development.

Challenge our action. Our continued relevance requires that we become increasingly diverse and inclusive. But our work doesn't stop there. A diverse and inclusive community requires nurturing learning, and requires us to face challenges by participation in these very difficult dialogues: that we must evolve our models of service, our training and support, to meet these challenges. Ultimately, the people we serve in more than 61 countries abroad at deserve and expect nothing less. There are no easy answers. Boy, I can say — there are no easy answers! And the process will be neither quick nor simple. But I truly believe that our Returned Peace Corps Volunteer community, our incredible staff, and the Peace Corps family — we are all up to this challenge. We are staying strong — and we stay a leader in our mission of world peace and friendship.

I'm here for you all. I'm here for Peace Corps. I'm here for the mission. I am here for going back: better, stronger, more diverse, more equitable. So we can be proud for our next 60 years as we begin our 60th year. Thank you all. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your help. And thank you for being strong. I'll turn it back to Glenn.

Read more: “Our Peace Corps Evacuation Journey,” chronicling what Olsen calls the toughest decision she ever made — to evacuate all Peace Corps Volunteers globally in March 2020. The essay appears in the Summer 2020 edition of WorldView magazine.

As we celebrate an anniversary, renew a commitment to building peace and friendship here are home by taking a stand for equity and justice under the law.

By Jonathan Pearson

We are just days away from the 60th anniversary of a moment that jump-started the establishment of the Peace Corps. At 2 a.m. on October 14, 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy gave an impromptu speech outside the University of Michigan’s student union. After a day of campaigning, he didn’t expect a crowd of thousands to be waitinig, but there they were. 

Those familiar with the speech recall these words:

"How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?”

Not as well known are the words that followed:

“On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”

“I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.”

In the months ahead, the enthusiastic answer to Kennedy’s question led to the creation of the Peace Corps — and began a journey that nearly a quarter million Volunteers have undertaken. Sixty years after this foundational moment for the Peace Corps, we invite you to contribute a small “part of your life to this country” — through an advocacy action that seeks to help our nation fulfill its promise of justice and equality for all. 

We invite you to write to your U.S. senators and urge action on two pieces of legislation before that body:

• Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (S. 4263), named after the iconic Congressman and civil rights leader whose beloved wife Lillian Miles Lewis, earlier served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nigeria.
   
• Meanwhile, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) has introduced the Justice in Policing Act of 2020 (S. 3912), similar to legislation passed in the House named in remembrance of George Floyd.

By following this link, you can send personalized messages as a member of the Peace Corps community, urging your Senators to take action.

Take Action

Food for thought — and for life — in a time of crisis

By NPCA Staff
Photo: Ackeem Evans, left, with a volunteer for World Central Kitchen. Courtesy Ackeem Evans. 

Here are two stories that inspired us in the past two days: Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have carried their sense of community and commitment to the critical work they’re doing at a time of a global pandemic, and when people across the United States and around the world have taken to the streets to protest racial injustice.

Ackeem Evans was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania when an earthquake struck, killing scores and injuring thousands. In the aftermath, he worked with World Central Kitchen (WCK) to provide meals to those affected by the earthquake. When he was evacuated in March, he connected with WCK in his home town of Atlanta. He’s now leading operations for WCK in Georgia, ensuring tens of thousands of free meals get to the needy and underserved.
 

Thanks to Henri Hollis with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for this story.

Jocelyn Jackson served as a natural resources Volunteer in Mali 2005-06. “To spend two years in a small village, with less than 500 people, in the Sahel area was all the sadness and it was all the beauty, it was all the joy and it was all the sorrow,” she writes. “And being able to hold those things simultaneously was one of the biggest gifts of that experience.”

She has written an essay for Eater of her remarkable journey to this point in time. One moment: Her parents’ families came from the South. “In my mom’s case, it was a three o’clock in the morning train escaping Mississippi in order to survive, in the face of family members and friends of the family being lynched.”

She also earned an M.S. in environmental education and cofounded People’s Kitchen Collective in Oakland, California to serve the community. And that’s what makes her story so powerful now. Amid the pandemic and protests against racial injustice she asks:
 

“It is so heartbreaking that in a moment of pandemic, so much racialized violence is happening that we will die in order to prevent our deaths. We will die in order to prevent our deaths. And I don’t know if that has sunk in for the broader community yet. But that is the difficult non-choice at this moment. If not now, when? Our black and brown community is risking their lives.”

We’re convening for an ideas summit to ask some big questions about the Peace Corps community in a changed world. 

In the next few weeks, we’re also bringing together members of the Peace Corps community around issues of racial injustice and climate change — to help shape our agenda for the future.

In March 2020, Peace Corps Volunteers were evacuated globally because of a global pandemic still taking its toll. That created an unprecedented and enormous challenge on its own.

We want to help reignite the work of Peace Corps around the world. So how do we do that, and make sure that Peace Corps — and our community — is the best that it can be?

Join us to help answer these questions — and take action.

Learn More & Register