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National Peace Corps Association > News > Polyglot > Returned Peace Corps Interviews Now on YouTube
Returned Peace Corps Interviews Now on YouTube
By Erica Burman on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
From Swaziland to Thailand to Ecuador, each episode of “Bring the World Home”—a weekly 30-minute television program airing on public cable access television in Hawaii—tells a different story about the lives of Peace Corps Volunteers.
In order to “fulfill the third goal of the Peace Corps, to educate Americans about the other countries in which volunteers have served,” the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Hawaii (RPCVHI) have produced 77 “Bring the World Home” television episodes since 2002.
In each episode, Volunteers share information about their two year volunteer service, which includes talking about the people, culture, life overseas, working conditions, the work accomplished and how these experiences have changed them.
Putting together the series is no small feat. Up to 10 volunteers spend about 80 hours serving as the production team for each half-hour episode. The episodes then air every Monday at 9:00 p.m. and every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. on Hawaii Public Cable Channel 53, with additional time slots when available. “Bring the World Home” can also be seen the RPCVHI’s YouTube channel, so you don’t have to travel to Hawaii to view them–though that would be nice!
Since the start of its broadcast, the “Bring the World Home” series has received several awards, including the “Olelo Video Award Culture & Ethnic Program.” In 2004 RPCVHI received NPCA’s Loret Ruppe Award for the series. The group recently offered a gift of the collected episodes to the NPCA for our archives. Kudos to the RPCVs of Hawaii for their unflagging commitment to the Peace Corps’ legacy.
The Olelo series, “Bring the World Home,” is outstanding and deserves much broader recognition.
Kudos to the team producing the series.
Having both been interviewee and interviewer, it’s fascinating to learn how many people channel surfing find “Bring the World Home” and stop to watch! The YouTube site has received hundreds of hits, providing an enormously broad audience for the values, goals/mission and outcomes of Peace Corps service. The production team, both “Volunteers” and volunteers, have demonstrated their commitment to Peace Corps’s mission over and over and over. Absolutely ‘kudos’ to them, and to the RPCVHI organization for finding ways to share these with the world.