January 26, 2003 - Raleigh News: Zaire RPCV Peter Kittany leads the N.C. Rural Communities Assistance Project

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2003: 01 January 2003 Peace Corps Headlines: January 26, 2003 - Raleigh News: Zaire RPCV Peter Kittany leads the N.C. Rural Communities Assistance Project

By Admin1 (admin) on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 9:32 pm: Edit Post

Zaire RPCV Peter Kittany leads the N.C. Rural Communities Assistance Project





Caption: One of Peter Kittany's 'great skills is his ability to cross cultures even in North Carolina,' a former co-worker says.

Read and comment on this story from the Raleigh News on Zaire RPCV Peter Kittany who leads the N.C. Rural Communities Assistance Project, a nonprofit organization committed to helping small towns and rural communities surmount public health and environmental problems. Since 1987, the organization has helped more than 156 low-income communities in at least 70 counties address basic water, wastewater and waste disposal needs. The nonprofit has funneled more than $25 million to the state's rural counties for such projects. It helps several Chatham County families each year get indoor bathrooms. Read the story at:

Nonprofit's director likes to get involved*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Nonprofit's director likes to get involved

By ANNE BLYTHE, Staff Writer

PITTSBORO -- After a week of 12-hour days spent helping North Carolina's rural hinterland from his office, Peter Kittany goes to bed on a chilly Friday night worrying about an elderly man and woman without indoor plumbing.

So he gets up the next morning and does his work with a pick and a shovel, so that couple will no longer have to bundle up in darkness and hurry through a wintry night to an outhouse.

"That is vintage Peter Kittany," said Quinton Baker, a friend and former colleague. "He is extremely diligent, very committed to his work. He is, 'Yeah, I work five days a week, 12 to 14 hours a day,' but on a cold and damp Saturday, when there is an elderly family without indoor plumbing, he would dig trenches or do whatever's necessary so they don't have to live like that."

Kittany, 41, has spent the past eight years as director of the N.C. Rural Communities Assistance Project, a nonprofit organization committed to helping small towns and rural communities surmount public health and environmental problems.

It is a job that takes compassion, political adroitness, mediation skills, carpentry savvy and a keen understanding of federal, state and county budgets.

As director of NCRCAP, Kittany often finds himself in small, tight-knit and poor communities where people tolerate well water that smells like rotten eggs and trudge through the muck of failing septic systems.

Since 1987, the organization has helped more than 156 low-income communities in at least 70 counties address basic water, wastewater and waste disposal needs. The nonprofit has funneled more than $25 million to the state's rural counties for such projects. It helps several Chatham County families each year get indoor bathrooms.

But Kittany does not reel off facts and numbers about his work. Instead, he talks about Delta City in Beaufort County, North River in Carteret County, Governors Island on the Tuckasegee River in Swain County. He tells you about the parents, grandparents and children who make up the 100 to 200 families there.

These communities, blessed with deep histories but plagued by unsanitary water and sewage disposal systems, are often on the verge of extinction. Their roots are in the clusters of modest homes along the state's narrow rural highways that snake and stretch past land where small country stores and small family cemeteries are common sights.

"The beauty about Delta City was that you had young people who wanted to live close to their families," Kittany said.

Kittany and the other workers with the nonprofit go into a community and get involved. They get to know the county commissioners, who often make spending decisions. They train community leaders how to navigate bureaucratic waters. Then they stay in contact with local people long after water and sewer pipes have been laid.

"They're dependable," said Sylvia Allyn, a convenience store cashier who worked with the organization to bring safe drinking water to her rural community near Henderson. "If they can help you, they will. They will assist you in whatever way they can."

Often, Kittany said, that means sitting in the second-story offices of the Blair Building in downtown Pittsboro, talking on the phone to coax grants out of government administrators.

"We're talking about public and environmental health, but we're also talking about running water in households," Kittany said.

Ten years ago, when Kittany started work at NCRCAP, there were just two staff members. Now the nonprofit boasts 5 1/2 positions, with enough work for many more. The budget last year was $269,000 -- most of which goes to personnel who write grant applications.

Kittany, who is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer that was detected late last year, does not like being cooped up in the office as much as he has been lately, and his soft brown eyes glimmer when he talks about working out in the field.

"Peter just connects with these people," said Steve Dear, director of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty and a former co-worker of Kittany. "One of his great skills is his ability to cross cultures even in North Carolina. And you match that with someone who's able to focus on the needs of a segment of the population that usually doesn't get much focus. That is Peter's gift."

Kittany grew up in Blytheville, Ark., with three sisters and a brother in a middle-class existence.

His mother toiled in the home, he said, while his father worked at a factory that made chrome rims for the back of Mercury Cougars. He went to Mississippi County Community College in Blytheville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, thinking he would become a medical illustrator.

But by 1984, when he received a degree in biology and illustration, his plans had changed. "There are only so many ways to draw a gall bladder," Kittany said. "And in plaid is not one of them."

He enrolled in the Peace Corps and taught fish farming in Zaire, which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Kittany just ended up in the Triangle, as he likes to say. He lived in his car for several months, conditions that he found bearable after lodging in the huts of central Africa. Then he found an apartment he could afford and embarked on a career with nonprofit organizations -- helping the mentally ill get housing, assisting with a job-placement program for the disabled in Orange County and, since 1993, bringing rural North Carolina into the 21st century.

Kittany, who is divorced, is a private person, his friends say. He has a wry sense of humor. One year at Christmas, he decorated a chair instead of a tree with forks, old credit cards, chewing gum and other common household items. Another time, he painted dead boxwoods in front of his house with vibrant primary colors.

He still draws, mostly caricatures and political cartoons. He also spends a lot of time with Henry, his big black furry dog, who joins him most places.

Kittany would rather talk about the organization and the people who work there than himself. Friends say he never really leaves work. If he has a flash of an idea at 2 o'clock in the morning, he might get up from his rural Chatham County home and drive to the office.

"That's typical for Peter," said Sharon LaPalme, NCRCAP associate director. "Those are the kinds of hours he keeps."


Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newsobserver.com.
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Zaire; Special Interests - Rural Community Assistance; Service

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By Margaret Szumowski on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 - 9:14 pm: Edit Post

Hello to Peter Kittany,

Congratulations on all your good work both in the U.S. and in the Congo. My husband and I were Peace Corps Volunteers in Zaire 1973-74. I was a teacher at College Boboto, and my husband worked at Mama Yemu Hospital. The next year we were moved to Ethiopia where he worked with medical students and I taught Ethiopian students until the Emperor was deposed. Hope we get to meet you sometime. Margaret& Andrew Szumowski

By Julie (pcp465188pcs.shrpsr01.tn.comcast.net - 68.47.236.218) on Monday, April 26, 2004 - 3:25 pm: Edit Post

Dear Peter
Hello! My name is Julie. I am desperately searching for information about a James F. Kittany from Blytheville, Arkansas. His age is 50 and ex-wife's name is Linda. He also has a daughter named Lindsey. I am writing a book and would greatly appreciate any info you could tell me about this individual. Thank you!! My email address is kittany1@yahoo.com

By kittany (pcp465188pcs.shrpsr01.tn.comcast.net - 68.47.236.218) on Monday, June 21, 2004 - 4:03 pm: Edit Post

DO YOU KNOW JAMES F. KITTANY OR JIMMY THE K???
Please help me with info about this person. I am writting a book about him and need an outsider's point of view. Please contact me by email:kittany1@yahoo.com

By Jim Haslauer (198.133.100.133) on Monday, September 11, 2006 - 11:10 am: Edit Post

Hey Peter,

Just hooked up with Mike Tidwell this weekend in Little Rock. We vowed to catch up with folks from our group. If you get a chance contact me at James.Haslauer@alltel.com.

Jim


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