`DDN' reporting flawed by Romania PCV Charlie B. Davis
`DDN' reporting flawed
The Dayton Daily News is catering to the type of news reporting that I have enjoyed missing since my June 2002 departure from the United States to become a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania.
I have never received, in my 64 years, as high a quality of health-care treatment as I have experienced in my service with the Peace Corps.
The DDN reporting is copiously flawed. For example, the DDN reports that one Peace Corps volunteer was not paid her final return allotment. True, simply because she did not complete the entire service. If you leave prior to your service, you will get what you earned.
She quotes that her `parents had to support her.' Even if she received the entire return allowance, she would have to get a job.
A Peace Corps volunteer earns a $225-per-month return allotment for each month served. This information is available on the Peace Corps Web site and in written material distributed by the Peace Corps.
One reader's response compared the mortality rate to the Iraq war. Our brave soldiers are dying every day there; that is not the case in the Peace Corps.
I feel safer in the Peace Corps than walking the streets in major United States cities after dark. I eat food that is not chemically dusted, walk to work, and drink Peace Corps filtered water.
The bottom line: The DDN's lengthy series certainly had room to address serious Peace Corps problems, but failed to include accurate and pertinent facts.
Charlie B. Davis Romania
