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National Peace Corps Association > News > Polyglot > RPCVs Overwhelmingly Support Global Community Projects
RPCVs Overwhelmingly Support Global Community Projects
By Molly Mattessich on Thursday, October 20th, 2011
An exciting element of September’s 50th anniversary celebrations was the Global Community Project Competition, which was part of the National Peace Corps Association’s Conversations: The Future of the Peace Corps program hosted by Bill Moyers on Saturday, September 24, 2011.
The National Peace Corps Association created the Global Community Project Fund to support innovative and scalable projects addressing today’s pressing challenges led by members of the Peace Corps community
Some 1,500 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) gathered in the National Theater to listen to 15-minute multimedia presentations by the two RPCV project finalists: Andrew Dykens (Mauritania 94-97) for the PeaceCare / Kedougou, Senegal partnership and Thomas Robertson (Nepal 92-96) for Friends of Nepal and Janasewa Samaj Nepal’s Jana Sewa Community Hospital and Smokeless Stove/Kitchen Garden Project.
RPCVs gather outside the National Theater to attend the event
Following the presentations, the audience was asked to choose the winning project proposal, the one which best incorporated the principles of the Peace Corps (not limited to the three goals of the Peace Corps, continuation of service, bringing cultural knowledge home, cultural appreciation and sharing, integration in communities to solve community challenges), with the aim of promoting a more peaceful and prosperous world. The prize: a $25,000 grant.
Not surprisingly, the audience refused to choose a winner, declaring that both projects were worthy of support. Then, in true Peace Corps fashion, the hat was passed and within the space of 15 minutes over $10,000 in cash and pledges was raised.
Thank you to all who helped seed the Global Community Project Fund, and those who added subsequent donations! If you would like to make a donation today, click here and select “Global Community Projects”.
Janasewa Samaj Nepal / Jana Sewa Community Hospital and Cookstove Project – Thomas Robertson (Nepal ‘92-96) of Friends of Nepal
http://janasewa.org/hospital.php
JSSN is a secular, non-political, non-profit community organization founded in Nepal in 1991. It’s members are dedicated to staying in their home villages and believe that developing villages is the key to developing Nepal.
Janasewa Community Hospital (JSCH) will be the first community hospital in the Easterns hills of Nepal serving mostly people from the northern half of Khotang district. This area is remote, mostly roadless in the mid-hills with a population of about 70,000. The Community Hospital aims to provide basic and emergency health services for everybody but especially poor and marginalized people. Health services will include maternal health, bone fractures, child health, and general services.
View Tom Robertson’s presentation
Peace Care / Kedougou, Senegal – Andrew Dykens (Mauritania 97-99)
http://www.peacecare.org/
The mission of Peace Care is to cultivate grass roots global health solutions by creating enduring links between communities of need and entities of resource.
Global Community Health Collaborative between the University of Illinois – Chicago Department of Family Medicine, Peace Corps Senegal, and the Kedougou Region in Southeast Senegal, West Africa is currently focused on instituting cervical cancer screening and treatment services as well as pump repair and will be exploring cell phone texting as a means of community outreach and information gathering.
View Andrew Dyken’s presentation
Yes! I will donate to these Global Community Projects
It was my great pleasure to kick off the fund raising event at the National Theater with an on the spot $500 contribution. It is my earnest hope that RPCVs will add to the $10,000 raised then with future contributions to PC projects worldwide. Each dollar is a vote our congressional leaders and the President should take into consideration. With 200,000 RPCVs and with each one a leader in his or her community and each one touching hundreds of people, we can change the face of history.