Garden of Refuge
As part of our commitment to continued service, the Seattle Peace Corps Association (SEAPAX) is partnering with World Relief Western Washington to support a refugee community garden. For the last five years, teams of SEAPAX Volunteers have worked in the garden, clearing weeds in the spring to ready the beds for the planting season and planting cover crops in the fall to prepare them for winter. At the suggestion of refugee and immigrant community members concerned about the lack of access to healthy food, World Relief Resiliency Program created an urban garden in Kent, Washington, in 2017. In transforming a...
Show Up, Stand Up
Dear Peace Corps Community, This issue of WorldView arrives at a worrisome time. As I write, Peace Corps and the values it promotes are under threat like never before, with Peace Corps just the latest government agency to suffer substantial cuts at the behest of the current administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. So far, this has resulted in a roughly 40% reduction in Peace Corps staff at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and up to a 25% reduction in local staff at some Peace Corps country offices, which is especially troubling. These cuts are currently underway. The...
Ubuntu in Action
Ubuntu is a word most Returned Peace Corps Volunteers are familiar with. It’s the belief that an individual’s humanity is fostered through their relationships with others, often summarized as “I am because we are.” Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu leveraged Ubuntu during South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy emphasizing empathy, collective responsibility and restorative justice. Last month, the Museum of the Peace Corps Experience (MPCE) launched its first exhibit of 2025, Ubuntu in Action: Exploring the Peace Corps and Shared Humanity, hosted by the International Peace Museum in Dayton, Ohio. This inspiring exhibit delves into the spirit of service,...
2017 Sam Farr Congressional Leadership Award Winners Selected
We are proud to announce the winners of the 2017 Sam Farr Congressional Leadership Award are Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Patrick Leahy, Representative Ted Poe and Representative Joe Kennedy. As Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively, on the Appropriations Committee, Senator Graham and Senator Leahy have worked to ensure that the Peace Corps has the funding it needs. Representative Poe and Representative Kennedy have taken up the critical task of improving the health, safety and security of currently-serving and returned Volunteers. The awards will be presented by former Representative Sam Farr during NPCA’s Capitol Hill Day of Action on March 1st. Despite the Administration proposing...
Saving Lives Through Art
Three San artists from D’Kar, Botswana, recently traveled to the United States for the first time for an exhibit and sale of their unique, colorful folk art. The artists—Jan Tcega John, Xhoma Simon, Ndodonyane Ditsheko-- and the Kuru Art Director Maude Brown, spent 11 days in Santa Cruz, California as guests of the exhibit organizer, Peggy Flynn, RPCV Botswana (2013-2016). Fifteen oil paintings were sold via live and silent auctions; 37 original linocuts were sold, and a seven-day safari for two in the Okavango Delta of Botswana was auctioned as were three Annieglass © plates that were hand painted by the San artists a...