Interesting take on Peace Corps, I wonder what Sen. Dodd would have to say about this piece?

From the NPCA:

Do you know of a returned Peace Corps volunteer who continues to make a sustained and distinguished contribution to humanitarian causes at home or abroad? Someone who typifies the best qualities of the Peace Corps community?

If so, nominate him or her for the Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. The award was named to recognize the tremendous contributions of the first Peace Corps Director, Sargent Shriver, in the founding and development of the Peace Corps.

We welcome your nomination materials by June 2, 2008 to qualify for consideration.

Past winners and the nomination form (.doc)

An RPCV that served in Guyana represented at a Peace Corps Fair in Arizona, she has this to day about the event:

 

The PC fair was a smashing success!  I printed some of the photos out for the poster and had the rest of the pics with captions in a slideshow running on the laptop…I only took a few photos at the PC fair because I was so busy the whole time answering all kind of questions about the Peace Corps in Guyana…Well, here’s a picture of me and the table… sorry the photo is a little dark.

(via breakingnewskenya.wordpress.com)

Peace Corps operations in Kenya will be temporarily suspended to ensure the safety of the 58 remaining Peace Corps Volunteers serving in Kenya. With growing instability in Kenya, and following the unrest associated with the recent elections on December 27, 2007, these Volunteers who remained working at their sites in the eastern, central and coastal regions of Kenya, will now be transitioning out of service.

Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter said, “Our first priority is the safety and security of our Volunteers. Over 5,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Kenya in the last 42 years, building deep friendships with the people there. The Peace Corps has become an integral and positive element of the U.S. partnership with Kenya and the Kenyan people.”

The 58 Volunteers from the eastern region of Kenya will be granted close of service in good standing, or offered an opportunity to transfer to another Peace Corps country. The ultimate goal of Peace Corps/Kenya is to return Volunteers to their communities in Kenya when the security situation improves. The Peace Corps staff will remain in Kenya and maintain the program during the temporary suspension.

(via peacecorpsonline.typepad.com/)

The U.S. Peace Corps is evacuating 35 of its volunteers from western Kenya because of the violence that has rocked the country since the disputed December 27 presidential election.  The relief agency says the volunteers are safe, and should arrive in the main Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam Saturday.  The Peace Corps has 144 volunteers based in Kenya, although the organization says 22 of them are currently out of the country. An agency statement says the remaining volunteers have been “consolidated in a variety of locations.”  The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi is asking U.S. citizens in Kenya to remain indoors while the fighting continues, and urges them to consider leaving for their own safety.  More than 300 people have been killed in the post-election violence.

(via cbs2chicago.com)

A Peace Corps volunteer from Illinois was killed in Suriname when she accidentally set off a gun rigged as an animal trap, police said.

The woman, identified as 25-year-old Blythe Ann O’Sullivan, was shot in the leg Thursday and apparently bled to death before she could get medical treatment, police spokesman John Jones said Saturday.

O’Sullivan, a native of Bloomingdale, Ill., joined the Peace Corps in August 2006, the corps said in a statement on its Web site. She worked on a water project and with women’s organizations to fund and develop a village community center, the corps said.

“Blythe’s death is a tremendous loss for her loved ones, family, the Peace Corps, and the people of Suriname,” Peace Corps director Ron Tschetter said in the agency’s statement.

Jones said the victim was volunteering in the woods of a rural northern village inhabited by Maroons, descendants of runaway African slaves.

Obama says he will double the size of the Peace Corps from 7,800 volunteers to 16,000 by its 50th anniversary in 2012. “We will create new opportunities for all of us to serve,” Obama said on Wednesday. He has also proposed:

• Expand AmeriCorps from its current 75,000 positions to 250,000, with new units to deal with education, clean energy, health care and homeland security.
• Expand service programs involving retired people and anyone over 55.
• Set goals for middle school and high school students to give 50 hours a year of public service, and for college students to serve 100 hours a year.

(via wdsu.com)

An op-ed calling for more volunteers, less war. Written by Arthur S. Obermayer, president of the Obermayer Foundation and Kevin F. F. Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association.

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Panama PCV Charley Stough created a number of Peace Corps cartoons in 1965.  Funny how these still hold true today. 

(via panamapcv.net/)

(Charley’s note: 
The “VIP” one was after VP Hubert Humphrey’s sister breezed through my site in a line of limos, hours late. Villagers called hubbies home from work, cleaned furiously, lined up kids, and she ignored everybody. The light was fading and the film wouldn’t come out. )

For volunteers heading to Guyana some time in the near future, please feel free to look through the Guyana Welcome Book.  You should receive this with your country packet once accepted but in the meanwhile, below is the publicly available .pdf of the document. 

The Peace Corps Guyana Welcome Book

[Editor's Note: This is a publicly available document residing on a tax payer funded server.]