March 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Togo: Women's Issues: Modesto Bee: It was a bit of a surprise when, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the African nation of Togo, Kristine Oase found herself escorting girls from a rural village through a city, introducing them to female business owners. The purpose: to help the girls learn about their career options.
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March 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Togo: Women's Issues: Modesto Bee: It was a bit of a surprise when, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the African nation of Togo, Kristine Oase found herself escorting girls from a rural village through a city, introducing them to female business owners. The purpose: to help the girls learn about their career options.
It was a bit of a surprise when, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the African nation of Togo, Kristine Oase found herself escorting girls from a rural village through a city, introducing them to female business owners. The purpose: to help the girls learn about their career options.
It was a bit of a surprise when, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the African nation of Togo, Kristine Oase found herself escorting girls from a rural village through a city, introducing them to female business owners. The purpose: to help the girls learn about their career options.
Giving Peace A Chance Two Young Women Each At A Crossroads, Choose The Peace Corps Path
By Kerry McCray
Modesto Bee
Modesto, Calif.
March 12, 2005
Each year, thousands of people sign up for the Peace Corps, an organization founded in 1961 when President Kennedy asked students to serve their country by living and working in developing countries.
Since then, more than 170,000 Peace Corps volunteers have worked in 137 host countries. They do a little of everything, including running health clinics, helping with agricultural efforts and assisting with AIDS education.
Here are the stories of two Peace Corps volunteers from the Modesto area. One, Mary Wallace, recently left on her two-year adventure. Another, Kristine Oase, recently returned.
[Excerpt]
Kristine Oase probably never thought she'd be coordinating a career education day.
The now-27-year-old had her own job troubles. Since graduating from the University of the Pacific in 1999, Oase had worked in real estate, health care and education, only to feel that none of the fields were for her.
So it was a bit of a surprise when, as a Peace Corps volunteer in the African nation of Togo, Oase found herself escorting girls from a rural village through a city, introducing them to female business owners. The purpose: to help the girls learn about their career options.
This was a radical notion for the young ladies, who came from a 500-person village in the country's hilly northern region. Girls rarely went to school there. Most never left the village.
"It was a new experience for them," says Oase, the daughter of Kit and Susan Oase of Ripon.
The 1995 Ripon High School graduate never experienced the sort of isolation that her young charges did. If anything, she had too many careers to chose from. She had been an administrative assistant in a real-estate office and had attended school to become a certified nursing assistant.
She was working as a substitute teacher in 2002 when she decided to go into the Peace Corps.
Four months after being accepted, Oase found herself on a plane to Togo -- a country the size of West Virginia -- with 38 other volunteers. At 25, she was one of the oldest in the group.
When she arrived, she spent three months living with a host family, learning about the culture and perfecting her French, the language most educated people there speak. Another Peace Corps volunteer, about to leave the country, showed her around the village in which she was to live.
She met the chief. He had three wives, which Oase learned was a common practice in rural Africa. Then there was the health clinic Oase was to help run. An IV bag hung from a wooden pole. There was no running water. Workers toted water in baskets from a nearby well.
Oase's job was to help vaccinate children and assist with minor medical emergencies and births. She also served as an AIDS educator, teaching young people about the disease so they could spread the word among their friends and relatives.
Another of her duties was encouraging girls to go to school and see life beyond the village. She and Peace Corps volunteers from other villages took girls to the nearest city, where they introduced them to more than women in business. They took the girls to places they had never been, including a bank and an Internet cafe.
It was an eye-opener for Oase, who returned to Ripon in November. She's back to substitute teaching, trying to decide on her next career move. She's looking for a job in health education.
"There are times when I am like, wow, I'm glad I had this experience," she said.
When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state. |
| RPCVs in Congress ask colleagues to support PC RPCVs Sam Farr, Chris Shays, Thomas Petri, James Walsh, and Mike Honda have asked their colleagues in Congress to add their names to a letter they have written to the House Foreign Operations Subcommittee, asking for full funding of $345 M for the Peace Corps in 2006. As a follow-on to Peace Corps week, please read the letter and call your Representative in Congress and ask him or her to add their name to the letter. |
| Add your info now to the RPCV Directory Call Harris Publishing at 800-414-4608 right away to add your name or make changes to your listing in the newest edition of the NPCA's Directory of Peace Corps Volunteers and Former Staff. Then read our story on how you can get access to the book after it is published. The deadline for inclusion is May 16 so call now. |
| March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went. |
| Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week. |
| Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments. |
| WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service. |
| Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress. |
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Story Source: Modesto Bee
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Togo; Women's Issues
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