News
Peace Corps Community Achievements — May 2020
Community News — Achievements of RPCVs Author: Peter Deekle (Iran 1968-1970) May 2020 ARMENIA Elizabeth Morgan (2019-2020) continues to chair the Peace Corps volunteer team in Armenia following her evacuation due to the coronavirus pandemic. She works remotely with an Armenian non-profit organization on an English-language contest for students aged 12 to 17. The project is funded by a Peace Corps Partnership Program grant. The contest helps contestants develop digital literacy skills alongside spoken English, critical thinking, and confidence in public speaking. Since January 2020, students from all over Armenia have been studying and reciting well-known speeches and poems in English as...
BREAKING NEWS: House Legislation Proposes Rescinding Peace Corps COVID-19 Funds. Here’s action you can take.
Legislation would jeopardize funds that provided for health and safety of more than 7,300 evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers amid global pandemic. Let’s keep that from happening. While there has been significant legislation introduced to support Peace Corps and evacuated volunteers, a South Carolina Congressman has announced legislation that would — in part — rescind the $88 million in emergency appropriations approved earlier for Peace Corps. Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-SC) has introduced H.R. 6657, the Working Under Humanity’s Actual Needs (WUHAN) Rescissions Act, which calls for eliminating more than $27 billion from the CARES Act legislation that was overwhelmingly approved by Congress...
The Unfinished Business of Peace Corps Volunteers Evacuated from Around the World
On March 15 more than 7,300 Peace Corps Volunteers were told they needed to leave the communities they had called home—an unprecedented global evacuation. They were uprooted from the lives and work they had come to know, sometimes without the opportunity to even say goodbye. They are returning to a country in crisis. National Peace Corps Association is working to ensure they have the resources they need during these uncertain and difficult times. We also want to make sure the world hears their stories. We are gathering here first-person videos and stories, as well as interviews with evacuated Volunteers from...
Week in Review: Peace Corps News in Unprecedented Times
Unemployment benefits, personal stories of evacuation, and Volunteers serving on the front lines to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic By NPCA Staff Here are the top stories of the week on the Peace Corps community across the United States — and around the world. And here’s a sampling of opinion pieces and coverage from states and communities that are home to some of the 7,300 evacuated Volunteers — and nearly a quarter million Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Stay up to date throughout the week with our Flipboard stories, and subscribe to the National Peace Corps Association newsletter. New York Times, The Hill | Peace Corps Volunteers are eligible for unemployment...
New House Legislation for Peace Corps Evacuees: Health Insurance, Helping at Home, Redeploying Overseas
New Peace Corps legislation continues to emerge to help evacuated Volunteers, this time in the House of Representatives. On April 30, Representatives Dean Phillips (D-MN) and Don Young (R-AK) announced the “Utilizing and Supporting Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers Act,” which addresses several issues to support present and future needs of evacuated Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. The legislation is also supported by Representatives John Garamendi (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), and Jennifer Wexton (D-VA). In a press release issued by Representative Phillips, National Peace Corps Association President Glenn Blumhorst notes that “At the heart of this legislation are initiatives to engage these volunteers in...
Labor Department Issues Unemployment Guidelines: Evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers Are Eligible
Today the U.S. Labor Department issued special unemployment guidelines which clarifies that evacuated Peace Corps Volunteers are eligible for this assistance. Given the unique circumstances of the pandemic and the projection that evacuees would be returning to a seriously contracting economy, National Peace Corps Association has advocated for some type of joblessness assistance to address this concern. The $2.2 trillion stimulus package to address the COVID-19 pandemic, approved on March 27, included a provision for “Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” (PUA). Introduced by Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), this part of the legislation created a temporary unemployment compensation program to provide federally funded benefits to people unable to...
Shaping Three Worlds
How WorldView pieces together our Peace Corps experience By David Arnold As this magazine continues publishing into its fourth decade, WorldView has become many things for the Peace Corps community. That’s what magazines do. Particularly this one. The tone and texture of this modest quarterly was bound to change for at least several reasons: tumultuous events in most of the 142 countries where we have served for more than five decades, the diversity of those of us who have volunteered to go there, and the often-failing efforts of our own government’s larger attempts to provide world leadership. The puzzle Since I began...
What Global Issue Do RPCVs Care About Most? Climate Change
So here’s what we’re doing next. By Glenn Blumhorst In January 2020 National Peace Corps Association conducted a national survey asking you about the global issues that you care about most — and what actions you might take to address these issues in your community. More than 3,000 members of the Peace Corps community responded. Nearly two thirds of you said climate change was by far the global issue you cared about most. You also showed strong support for global health, access to clean water, and women’s empowerment and girls education. Since January, we have learned an important lesson: Without proper preparation, existential threats like...
In Memoriam — April 2020
The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic has reached the Peace Corps community with the virus reported to have contributed to several deaths, including Art Whistler (Samoa), David Gelman (former staff), and Gary Baptist (Ghana). Tragedy struck in other ways recently. We remember those who fought for social justice, human rights, and the needs of others close to home and around the world. Maeve Kennedy McKean (1979-2020), the granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy, lost her life in a boating accident near a family home in Maryland. Maeve was an avid advocate for social justice and human rights, with a focus on issues relating to women, girls, and communities affected...
“The Heart of Peace Corps Values”
Volunteers show resilience and feel heartbreak amid the agency’s global evacuation By Tasha Prados Photo courtesy Ana Santos “Hours before our flight, at our Close of Service conference, my [Peace Corps] Country Director asked me how I was feeling,” Quinton Eklund Overholser said. “Only then did I muster a single word: heartbroken.” Overholser had been dreaming of serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Myanmar since his first year of high school — even before the Peace Corps operated in Myanmar. He was in Myanmar training to become a Volunteer when, in mid-March, the Peace Corps suspended operations for the...