RPCVs Addressing the Development Aid Gap

With drastic international aid reductions, RPCV programs can be a critical source of support in marginalized communities. 

The idealism and optimism that gave birth to Peace Corps 65 years ago live on in the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) community and have never been more needed. With drastic international aid reductions, RPCV programs can be a critical source of support in marginalized communities. 

In the Yumbe District of Northern Uganda where two RPCV programs have expanded over the last six years people do not have water or electricity but what they do have in abundance is optimism. With the help of affordable loans from TCP Global, they move from selling on mats in the hot sun to selling in the covered market stall or even their own kiosk. After small loans enable them to quadruple inventory, their earnings rise proportionately. They can then replace leaky and flammable straw roofs with metal, often topped by solar panels.  Women who were embarrassed to speak in parent meetings when they were delinquent in paying school fees become empowered to use their voices.

TCP Global works through Care Community Education Centre (CCEDUC), a Yumbe non-profit which serves as fiscal agent, providing banking and reporting services to allow informal savings groups to access international funds.  An alliance that started with 2 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in 2020, now supports more than 2200 borrowers in 72 VSLAs, including 14 VSLAs in the Bidibidi Refugee Camp where South Sudanese refugees credit TCP Global loans with enabling them to survive repeated cuts in refugee assistance over the last few years. 

Women finding their voices in Yumbe, Uganda

The story is repeated throughout Uganda and across Niger and Nepal where TCP Global has funded an additional 200 loan programs. Small programs also serve Zambia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Guatemala.  

Trusted partners are typically recommended by RPCVs with personal knowledge of effective non-profits in their old sites. Trusted partners and Rotarians sometimes recommend new partners as well. These trusted partners know their communities and are thus equipped to make good choices in choosing groups to manage loan programs. 

TCP Global funds are only for loans to entrepreneurs to improve their earnings but when they no longer exhaust their problem-solving skills keeping their families alive, another RPCV project provides the support they need to implement sustainable improvements in the health of their families and communities. TCP Global board member, Chris Roesel, runs his own non-profit called People to People (P2P) which gives funding and technical assistance for implementing proven, cost-effective water, sanitation, and health projects. 

After Peace Corps, Chris studied the most effective development initiatives of Peace Corps, USAID and others and applied what he learned in Southeast Asia and Latin America when working for various development agencies. As a retired person, he brings that knowledge to underserved communities in some of the poorest countries in Africa. What he learned over the years and what makes his interventions so successful is his keen understanding that those who live with the problems are the ones who develop the best and most sustainable solutions. P2P is the perfect sequel to TCP Global. Once people escape abject poverty and no longer struggle to stay alive, they are ready to work with Chris to find and implement long-term solutions to the problems which keep them and their communities mired in poverty.  

Groups celebrate at a TCP Global gathering in Yumbe, Uganda

As Director for Africa Programs for TCP Global, Chris is already connected to marginalized communities when their entrepreneur-changemakers reach the level of economic stability where they can redirect their problem-solving skills from survival to building a better future. The people decide what they want, and so far, it is always water. Since everyone wants a well and since wells are costly, Chris uses wells as a reward for installing latrines ($20-$50 each) and hand-wash stations ($3) which are essential for good health. After receiving water filters, household expenditures for diarrhea dramatically decrease, and on follow-up surveys, mothers report their children no longer have diarrhea, something they previously viewed as a fact of life. A community leader once told us that when he showed people a vial of the brown water they were drinking, they said that was what water was supposed to look like since that was all they had ever known. Chris honors decisions made by the community but also provides information to help them make even better decisions. 

TCP Global and P2P do not work with the most down-trodden, and needy, but work instead with their neighbors who have a spark of entrepreneurial spirit and are better equipped to be successful, serve as a model for others in the community, and then lead others on the road to prosperity. That is what has happened in the Yumbe District where 22 borrowers formed a Rotary Club with a mission of “Caring for Humanity.” To date they have helped over 20,000 villagers reduce malaria and diarrhea by upgrading water and sanitation facilities. 

Once people escape abject poverty, they instinctively work on multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals: eliminate poverty, disease, and hunger, promote education, economic growth and gender equality and more. While experts from abroad have a role, the best, fastest, and most sustainable development improvements result from simply removing economic barriers holding back potential village changemakers. This typically means access to affordable credit. 

Countless RPCV organizations work to fill the development gap in other ways, the best of which empower underserved communities to develop the capacity to fend for themselves, investing in things like education and regenerative agriculture. They are typically organizations focused on working themselves out of a job rather than job security. 

There is tremendous potential currently trapped in poverty and RPCVs who respect and understand under-served communities are uniquely prepared to unleash that potential. To learn more about empowering leaders in your Peace Corps community, send an email to contact@tcpglobal.ngo. 

Helene B. Dudley served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia (1968-70) and Slovakia (1997-99) with a brief stint as a trainee in Albania in 1997. She is co-founder and President of TCP Global, a member of the NPCA Emeritus Board and a past president of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida.