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News

March 3, 2024

Diary of a First-Time Advocate

An hour-by-hour account of NPCA’s National Day of Advocacy on Capitol Hill By Flavio Cabrera   8:30AM It is a windy morning when I arrive at our Peace Corps meeting point in an old church located two blocks away from the Supreme Court and the Capitol building. Ever since I moved to Washington D.C., I am continuously amazed and humbled by our nation’s magnificent venues. When I arrive at the church, I am impressed by the large number of former Peace Corps Volunteers who, like me, had served our country in previous years. Everyone I greet is kind as we share experiences...

February 26, 2024

Black History Month: Interview with RPCV Carla Brown-Ndiaye

Fueled by a curiosity of people, cultures, and international travel, RPCV Carla Brown-Ndiaye shifted from a budding career in human resources to serving as a teacher in the Comoro Islands — along the way deepening her respect for cultural perspective. Interview conducted by Tiffany James   In celebration of Black History Month, we honor the crucial role that Black Peace Corps Volunteers, staff, and communities have played globally throughout Peace Corps' more than 60-year success story. We proudly spotlight a Black RPCV whose journey of service and self-discovery transcended borders. After working in human resources for a few years after...

February 23, 2024

20 Years Strong: National Days of Advocacy

NPCA celebrates two decades of advocating for a stronger Peace Corps  By Jonathan Pearson Since its founding more than 45 years ago, National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) has been the leading voice for our community when it comes to supporting and improving the Peace Corps and its thousands of serving and returned Peace Corps Volunteers. But more recently, we established our National Days of Advocacy to coincide with Peace Corps Week. Back in 2005, NPCA moved to make advocacy at the federal level its centerpiece contribution to Peace Corps Week. For the next several years, the message to our community...

February 22, 2024

Q&A: Retrograde

A conversation with Emmy Award-winning producer and RPCV Baktash Ahadi by Robert Nolan Baktash Ahadi (Mozambique, 2005– 07) is an award-winning filmmaker, human rights activist, TEDx Speaker and RPCV. His latest film, the Emmy Award winner Retrograde, offers a first-hand account of the controversial U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the human toll the war has taken on Afghans and Americans alike. Below is a condensed and edited conversation Ahadi had with WorldView editor Robert Nolan. Robert Nolan: When I watched the film there was a particular scene when the Green Berets are breaking the news to their Afghan counterparts about...

February 22, 2024

Rallying Point

NPCA’s Continuation of Service program make volunteering easy—and accessible—for RPCVs by Eva Sundgrenz Peace Corps service instills an ethos of growth through giving back that still drives Returned Peace Corps Volunteers today. Volunteerism is declining across the United States, according to Philanthropy News Digest, but RPCVs understand the personal enrichment that comes from service done right. We have firsthand experience of the profound fulfillment offered by meaningful volunteer opportunities with visible community impact, versus passive acts such as signing petitions or donating money. In the current social and political climate, we must keep this distinctive spark of service alive by...

A WEFTA worker and local partners troubleshoot a groundwater well that provides water to Bachuma Hospital in West Omo Zone, Ethiopia.
February 22, 2024

Engineered for Consumption

A new opportunity for RPCVs to help deliver clean water, sanitation and hygiene to rural communities by Mary Ostrowski Most people in the developed world would agree with the statement “Water is life.” After all, our hands, lips, food, clothing, and household surfaces come in contact with clean, safe water multiple times a day. How could we exist without it and still be healthy enough to maintain our daily activities? We couldn’t. Most of us have never needed to try. Poor-quality water equates to a suboptimal life, one at significant risk of poor health, poverty, and hopelessness. Water Engineers for...

February 22, 2024

Putting the Peace in “Peace Corps”

My experience in East Timor taught me how Volunteers participate in peacebuilding by Dan Baker Peace Corps has played a significant yet often unrecognized role in global peacebuilding, the focus of this edition of WorldView. Current conflicts around the world, especially those occurring in countries where many of us have served, are heartbreaking to follow and devastating to our families, counterparts, and communities. At NPCA, our unequivocal goal is to help counter the forces that drive conflict by supporting the deployment of greater numbers of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve (safely) in developing countries where war has existed in the...

February 22, 2024

Heavy Medal

A new effort seeks a Congressional Gold Medal to recognize the collective efforts of Peace Corps Volunteers by Patrick Cotter and Duff Devine Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the return of the first Peace Corps Volunteers to the United States. Members of Congress and all those who support the outstanding contributions of the Peace Corps should consider nominating Returned Peace Corps Volunteers as a group for a prestigious Congressional Gold Medal, an accolade that would encapsulate their profound impact across 140 nations. As many of the first Volunteers sent abroad enter their retirement years, now is the time...

February 22, 2024

Peacebuilding with Persistence

Friends of Afghanistan continues to help youth, especially girls, thrive—even under Taliban rule As the world has shifted its collective attention to conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere, it might be hard to remember that it was only two years ago that American forces withdrew from Afghanistan after more than 20 years of waging war there. For the NPCA group Friends of Afghanistan, however, the fight for women’s rights, children’s education, health equity, and fair refugee policies hasn’t stopped. In November 2023, Friends of Afghanistan proudly celebrated 61 years since the establishment of Peace Corps in Afghanistan in...

February 16, 2024

A Matter of Perspective

Switching things up in the South Pacific One criticism often leveled at the standard maps of the 20th century is that they represent a Eurocentric view of the world. The maps we see hanging in countless classrooms and depicted on globes aren’t necessarily to scale. Commercial maps often depict an outsize Europe and a shrunken Africa, and place Asia and the Pacific Ocean on the periphery. Intentionally or not, such depictions carry with them ingrained ideas and ideologies about the geography of the world and where countries and people belong in it. The small multi-island nation of Vanuatu in the...