President’s Letter: Helping the Peace Corps Be Its Best
As we celebrate Volunteers returning to service in dozens of countries, we pay tribute to a leader here at NPCA who made a difference at a critical time for the Peace Corps community. By Dan Baker At left: El Paso, 2019 — Glenn Blumhorst assists migrants at the border. Just as the Winter 2023 edition of WorldView went press, Carol Spahn was sworn in as Director of the Peace Corps. I was delighted to be there as RPCV Rep. John Garamendi delivered the oath of office. This is an exciting and important moment. The Peace Corps community has spent nearly three years seeking to maintain and...
Park Experience, Antarctic Service, a National Press Foundation Award — and a Recently Appointed Rep in Raleigh
Recognition for three members of the Peace Corps community. And an RPCV appointed to the North Carolina Legislature. By NPCA Staff Photo: Shelton Johnson, recipient of the 2022 American Park Experience Award. Courtesy National Park Service Shelton Johnson | Liberia 1982–83 Shelton Johnson received the 2022 American Park Experience Award for his years of advocating for diversity in national parks and helping families and youth feel welcome by seeing their stories told there. Johnson has worked for the past 35 years as a ranger with the National Park Service at Yellowstone and now Yosemite National Park. His storytelling talents landed him a prominent...
Applying Lessons Learned from Decades in Development
How to Improve the World Quickly By Chris Roesel Peace Corps Writers After Chris Roesel served as a Volunteer in Guatemala 1973–75, “how to help those most in need was the question that drove me,” he writes. The result, chronicled here, brings together analysis of and on-the-ground lessons learned from projects in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, including NPCA affiliate group TCP Global, which enables community-based microloans. Roesel is founder and president of P2P Inc., a nonprofit organization providing water, sanitation, hygiene, malaria elimination, and income improvement in Uganda. The organization was named a 2021 Top-Rated Nonprofit.
RPCV-Founded Chica Bean Makes Impact and Supports the Peace Corps Community
Enjoy fresh Guatemalan specialty coffee while supporting the Peace Corps community. Shop at Chica Bean through March 21 and NPCA will receive 15 percent from online sales. By NPCA Staff Treat yourself to incredible coffee that contributes to a better world with Chica Bean — from an RPCV entrepreneur whose Peace Corps service shaped a successful business committed to producing quality Guatemalan roasted coffee, shipped fresh from their roastery to your doorstep. Stock up on Chica Bean products through March 21 and help support the Peace Corps community. Co-founded by returned Volunteer Alene Seiler-Martinez (Guatemala 2008–12) and husband Josue Martinez, CHICA BEAN has brewed up a way to more equally distribute value between coffee producing and consuming countries. Try out...
Recent Awards in Health Equity and Music Education
Awards for two members of the Peace Corps Community Photo: Maurice Lee, recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Equity By NPCA Staff Maurice Lee | Ecuador 1996–99 Maurice Lee was recognized with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Equity for his work with St. Vincent de Paul’s Virginia G. Piper Medical and Dental Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona. Lee is chief medical officer and medical director there; he also founded the Arizona Safety Net, a collaboration among more than 40 Phoenix-area free and low-cost clinics aimed at improving health equity for Arizona’s uninsured. The award has been presented...
A Contribution to Community
Pandemic Lessons: A vaccine trial participant By Tia Huggins Illustration by Maria Carluccio For the past six years I’ve served as director of care coordination at Imperial Beach Community Clinic, south of San Diego. Last year one provider at the clinic put out an email about the trial for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. I thought, I want to do that. It’s a contribution to your community, and participants were paid. A lot of people think it must be scary to do this. I wasn’t worried. To put it in stark terms, I’ve worked in hospice, and I think suffering is a...
On the COVID Floor
Pandemic Lessons: A nurse in the nation’s capital By Rose Conklin Illustration by Maria Carluccio The end of March, April, we were getting hit hard with COVID in Washington, D.C. It was really still an unknown illness, but it was everywhere. I had started a float position as a registered nurse at George Washington University Hospital, working on the medical surgical units and in the ER, sometimes helping out ICU nurses, wherever they needed me most. I was on the COVID medical surgical floor a lot of shifts in those months. A lot of nurses were scared in the beginning...
Letters Winter 2021: WorldView Readers Write
Letters, emails, Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram comments: Readers respond to the stories in words and images in our fall 2020 edition. We’re happy to continue the conversation.Write us: [email protected] Renew, retool, return? I suspect the Peace Corps will see a renewal following the Biden administration. Service to our country and promoting peace, prosperity, and democracy will take on new importance. It should be a promising future for the Peace Corps. Ben Kasper Somalia 1964–66 I struggle to see how it is ethical to send PCVs into different countries considering that America has no control over the virus right now, a huge number of...
Announcing the Winner of the 2020 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service: Matthew Paneitz
For nearly two decades he has partnered with Guatemalans to address injustices against indigenous peoples. By NPCA Staff Photo of Matthew Paneitz courtesy Long Way Home National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is pleased to announce the winner of the 2020 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service: Matthew Paneitz. The Shriver Award is presented annually by NPCA to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who continue to make a sustained and distinguished contribution to humanitarian causes at home or abroad, or who are innovative social entrepreneurs who bring about significant long-term change. The award is named in honor of the first Peace Corps Director, Sargent Shriver, who founded and developed Peace Corps....
Coming Home: Guatemala
Guatemala | Anna Zauner Home: Skillman, New Jersey Photo: Dressed in traditional Mayan traje, as is custom for Sunday Mass. Anna Zauner, left, with friend Jackelyn Saquic. We received the evacuation notice at 10 p.m., just hours after the Guatemalan government announced that all school would be canceled for 21 days. Forty-six minutes later I received the follow-up email with my departure date: Tuesday. A full day to say goodbyes and pack. I started Monday by telling my host family and what friends I could find the news. I ran into some of my students along the trail to school...