Luis Argueta: Now is a Time to Recognize Privilege — and Common Ties
A host country perspective from Guatemala. Remarks from the July 2020 global ideas summit: Peace Corps Connect to the Future. By Luis Argueta On July 18, 2020, National Peace Corps Association hosted Peace Corps Connect to the Future, a global ideas summit. NPCA invited three winners of the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award to share their perspectives. Here are remarks delivered by Luis Argueta — film director and producer whose work helps audiences better understand people on the margins — including “The Silence of Neto,” Guatemala’s first Oscar submission. Below is an edited version of his remarks. We are at...
Kul Chandra Gautam: Relevance of the Peace Corps in the post-COVID World
A host country perspective from Nepal. Remarks from the July 2020 global ideas summit: Peace Corps Connect to the Future. By Kul Chandra Gautam On July 18, 2020, National Peace Corps Association hosted Peace Corps Connect to the Future, a global ideas summit. NPCA invited three winners of the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award to share their perspectives. Here are remarks delivered by Kul Chandra Gautam — diplomat, public policy expert, and peace advocate — and former Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF. I want to thank National Peace Corps Association for this opportunity to share my views on the future of the Peace Corps...
Mohamud Said: The Main Aim of Peace Corps is to Empower People
A host country perspective from Kenya. Remarks from the July 18, 2020 global ideas summit: Peace Corps Connect to the Future. By Dr. Mohamud Sheikh Nurein Said On July 18, 2020, National Peace Corps Association hosted Peace Corps Connect to the Future, a global ideas summit. NPCA invited three winners of the Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award to share their perspectives. Here are remarks delivered by Dr. Mohamud Sheikh Nurein Said — volunteer, philanthropist, and humanitarian engaged in a wide range of medical service and human rights activities on the local, national, and international levels. Below is an edited version...
Man of Peace and Justice: John Lewis
In these most challenging times for our nation, we have lost an icon in the struggle for racial justice in America. By Jonathan Pearson Photo of John Lewis in 1965 by Stanley Wolfson, World Telegram staff photographer / Public domain The Peace Corps community mourns the loss of Congressman John Lewis, who died today. As a very young man in the early 1960s, Lewis pushed the boundaries and fought against power used unjustly. He never, ever stepped away from speaking truth to power. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke of how the “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends...
Pandemic has changed our community forever. Another disease we must fight: racism itself.
By Glenn Blumhorst DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE when you heard the news? That the U.S. Peace Corps had made the difficult and unprecedented decision to suspend programs indefinitely, evacuating 7,300 volunteers serving in more than 60 countries due to coronavirus, and informing them that their service had ended. That more than 100,000 Americans had died from COVID-19. That more than 40 million had applied for unemployment. That George Floyd had died after a policeman in Minneapolis pressed a knee on his neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. But George Floyd’s name is only one of a...
The Peace Corps in the Post-Pandemic World
COVID-19 upended systems. Now we’re focused on structural racism like never before. So how can Peace Corps help this nation live up to its ideals? By Lex Rieffel Illustration by Sandra Dionsi / Theispot The COVID-19 pandemic that erupted at the beginning of this year massively disrupted behavior that has for a long time been taken for granted — between people and between nations. Then in May the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis under the knee of a policeman sparked unprecedented demonstrations around the world to end systemic racial discrimination and improve social justice. Years will pass before new patterns of...
Opinion: We are the problem.
From someone who has worked in international development: We must stand with Black Americans and acknowledge the role racism plays in our institutions — and the work itself. By Tasha Prados Photo of Stockholm protests by Frankie Fouganthin / CC As the granddaughter of immigrants, I grew up knowing how privileged I was simply by the sheer luck of having been born in the United States. Being multicultural and Latinx, I spent most of my formative years between two worlds, never quite fitting in either, eager to connect more deeply with my Latin American roots. I went to El Salvador with a nonprofit...
Systemic racism is real. Here’s what we’re doing about it at National Peace Corps Association.
Ideas and actions — and the principles that guide us By Maricarmen Smith-Martinez and Glenn Blumhorst As Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, current and former staff, host country nationals, family, and friends, we uphold a commitment to creating a better world, one that promotes world peace and friendship. In this spirit, National Peace Corps Association envisions a united and vibrant Peace Corps community. We Stand Against Racial Injustice and affirm our commitment to empathy and justice — around the world, and here at home. Yet in the midst of national unrest ignited by systemic injustice, a vision of unity and vibrance is not enough....
Aaron Williams: In international development, it’s time to tackle systemic racism.
Williams issues a clarion call for building a more inclusive network for global development. And he explores the arc of Peace Corps history in an interview about the documentary A Towering Task. By Del Wood and Steven Boyd Saum We are in an historic moment. The protests against racial injustice that have swept the United States and scores of other countries since the end of May were sparked by the killing of George Floyd — one of so many Black women and men killed by police. The protests erupted with anger and frustration — and not only among Blacks. They have also ushered...
What Sustains Us
Food for thought — and for life — in a time of crisis By NPCA Staff Photo: Ackeem Evans, left, with a volunteer for World Central Kitchen. Courtesy Ackeem Evans. Here are two stories that inspired us in the past two days: Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have carried their sense of community and commitment to the critical work they’re doing at a time of a global pandemic, and when people across the United States and around the world have taken to the streets to protest racial injustice. Ackeem Evans was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in...