2006.02.24: February 24, 2006: Headlines: 45th Anniversary: History: Amador Ledger-Dispatch: Peace Corps celebrate 45th anniversary
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2006.02.24: February 24, 2006: Headlines: 45th Anniversary: History: Amador Ledger-Dispatch: Peace Corps celebrate 45th anniversary
Peace Corps celebrate 45th anniversary
Throughout its history, the Peace Corps has accommodated and responded to issues of the times. In a world that is constantly changing, volunteers meet new challenges with innovation, creativity, determination and compassion. These qualities have allowed the Peace Corps to achieve its mission since 1961.
Peace Corps celebrate 45th anniversary
Peace Corps celebrate 45th anniversary of living, working abroad
Friday, February 24, 2006
By Brandi Ehlers
On the rainy morning of March 1, 1961, then Sen. John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country by living and working abroad in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship. Forty-five years later, countless lives have been touched by tens of thousands volunteers who have answered Kennedy's call and served in the Peace Corps.
One Amador County woman is doing just that. Jessie Mabry is serving in Camroon in the Peace Corps Small Enterprise Development program.
Mabry, a 1996 graduate from Amador High School, left in June 2005 and is scheduled to return August 2007. After three and a half years in community college, Mabry transferred to Sarah Lawrence College, a small coeducational liberal arts school in Bronxville, N.Y., where she received her bachelor's degree. She then attended Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy in New York, N.Y., where she received her masters in urban planning and nonprofit management.
After that, Mabry applied for the Peace Corps. "It fit her inclination to do something in service," said her father, Dick Felberg.
Through the SED program, Mabry helps develop small businesses, such as small farmers to create business plans.
When she is done serving with the Peace Corps, Felberg said Mabry would probably find a job helping people in a decent size city, adding that she doesn't need a high paying job to be happy.
Throughout its history, the Peace Corps has accommodated and responded to issues of the times. In a world that is constantly changing, volunteers meet new challenges with innovation, creativity, determination and compassion. These qualities have allowed the Peace Corps to achieve its mission since 1961.
The Peace Corps mission has three simple goals including: Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their needs for trained men and women, helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.
More than four decades later, the Peace Crops is still growing. Since the beginning, more than 182,000 Peace Corps volunteers have been invited by 138 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education, information technology and environmental preservation.
Peace Corps volunteers work in a wide variety of areas, and no two days are ever the same. They are teachers and mentors to countless children. They have helped farmers grow crops, worked with small businesses to market products and shown women how to care for their babies. More recently, they have helped schools develop computer skills and educated entire communities about the threat of HIV/AIDS.
In celebration of the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps, currently serving and former volunteers will share their overseas experiences, participating in commemorative events that begin during Peace Corps Week, Feb. 27 through March 5, and continue through the end of the year.
Peace Corps Week provides an ideal opportunity for past and present volunteers to share how they have helped their host countries.
Today the Peace Corps is more vital than ever, stepping into new countries, working in emerging and essential areas such as information technology and business development, and committing more than 1,000 new volunteers as a part of President George W. Bush's HIV/AIDS Act of 2003. Volunteers in the Peace Corps continue to help countless individuals who want to build a better life for themselves, their children and their communities.
For more information about Peace Corps, visit www.peacecorps.gov. To learn more about Mabry and her work in Cameroon, visit www.jessieincameroon.blogspot.com.
When this story was posted in March 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency: "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. " |
| The Peace Corps Library The Peace Corps Library is now available online with over 40,000 index entries in 500 categories. Looking for a Returned Volunteer? Check our RPCV Directory. New: Sign up to receive PCOL Magazine, our free Monthly Magazine by email. Like to keep up with Peace Corps news as it happens? Sign up to recieve a daily summary of Peace Corps stories from around the world. |
| Paid Vacations in the Third World? Retired diplomat Peter Rice has written a letter to the Wall Street Journal stating that Peace Corps "is really just a U.S. government program for paid vacations in the Third World." Director Vasquez has responded that "the small stipend volunteers receive during their two years of service is more than returned in the understanding fostered in communities throughout the world and here at home." What do RPCVs think? |
| RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case. |
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
| PC establishes awards for top Volunteers Gaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9. |
| Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community. |
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Story Source: Amador Ledger-Dispatch
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; 45th Anniversary; History
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