2007.07.27: July 27, 2007: Headlines: Congress: Legislation: Speaking Out: PCOL Exclusive: 03. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers
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2007.07.27: July 27, 2007: Headlines: Congress: Legislation: Speaking Out: PCOL Exclusive: 03. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers
03. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers
Unfortunately, today some Peace Corps managers seem to assume that Volunteers are slackers and adolescents needing strict rules and discipline. Volunteers often get the impression that the managers don't trust us. They often seem to act as if Volunteers need to be tethered so that we won't embarrass the Country Director or generate a Congressional inquiry. When the agency suffers a rare negative incident, its instinct is to construct a bulwark of paperwork and rules in hopes of preventing a recurrence. En loco parentis condescension and risk aversion seem to be common attitudes.
03. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers
Renewing the Bond of Trust with Volunteers
At its founding, the Peace Corps was premised on a radical and idealistic notion that many thought was impractical and even outlandish. It took bold vision and risk taking—a New Frontier mentality, a land-on-the-moon mentality—to give this notion a try. The notion was that we could trust Americans, mostly young Americans, to envision what it would take to improve the lives of villagers in the developing world, to survive hardships, and to make the best of the situation and its challenges. It took visionaries like Sargent Shriver, Bill Moyers and Harris Wofford—leaders who trusted and listened to Volunteers—to put this brilliant idea into practice.
Over the decades, there has been no change in Volunteers that warrants a diminution of this bond of trust. As stated above, we are impressed with the Volunteers with whom we serve. Almost without exception, they are idealistic, resourceful and hard working. We find that they are more mature and wise to the world than we were at their age. We are proud to serve with them, and know that many will be friends for life. We invite you to visit the Volunteers in the field to see for yourself. We believe you will be inspired as we are.
Unfortunately, today some Peace Corps managers seem to assume that Volunteers are slackers and adolescents needing strict rules and discipline. Volunteers often get the impression that the managers don't trust us. They often seem to act as if Volunteers need to be tethered so that we won't embarrass the Country Director or generate a Congressional inquiry. When the agency suffers a rare negative incident, its instinct is to construct a bulwark of paperwork and rules in hopes of preventing a recurrence. En loco parentis condescension and risk aversion seem to be common attitudes.
One probable cause of condescension is the substantial age differential between managers and Volunteers, who tend to be straight out of college with little work experience. These skewed demographics might pose problems, but they do not justify treating Volunteers like juveniles. The Volunteers may be young, but they are exceptional individuals with deep insights into their work, their sites, and their needs at site. Condescension is sure to discourage older Volunteers from serving.
Hierarchical organizations, like the present-day Peace Corps, are notoriously poor at listening. They tend to command, dictate and impose, demoralizing Volunteers in the process. In many cases what Volunteers hear from the managers are demands—to write more reports or comply with more rules. Predictably, some Volunteers become resentful and unproductive or they terminate their service early.
Early termination is a plague in the Peace Corps. It squanders the expenses of the selection process, screening, site preparation, training and settling in. It dashes the hopes and expectations of the community in which the Volunteer was serving. The best way to reduce ETs is for the Peace Corps to listen better to what the Volunteers need to be effective and productive, as S. 732 commands.
We are aware that public disclosure of information about the mismanagement of a specific Peace Corps program might be problematic with host country officials. Therefore, we will not reveal information about specific programs if there is any possibility that the information might become public. We have taken steps in our testimony to be sure that there is no information that can be traced to a specific program or country. We do this also to protect the rights of individuals. So, the following is a sanitized view of situations that Volunteers have observed.
* An absence of mechanisms to ensure that Peace Corps staff in Washington and in country listen respectfully to Volunteers and respond decisively to reform policies and programs to maximize support for Volunteers.
* An absence of a mechanism to permit Volunteers to provide reviews of Peace Corps staff and Peace Corps programs on a confidential basis.
* Retention of staff who do not support Volunteers despite ample evidence of their poor performance.
* Continuation of certain sectoral programs year after year despite ample evidence at the village level that they are ineffective, leaving Volunteers frustrated and demoralized.
* A failure to reform language and technical training to provide the most practical and realistic preparation for village service. Written language materials are especially lacking.
* Training programs that fail to bring in officials of non-government organizations (NGOs) with whom Volunteers might collaborate to discuss insights and available funding.
* A medical screening process that is needlessly opaque and apparently designed to reduce the leverage of applicants. A refusal to publish information about the process and its standards.
* Peace Corps Washington officials who are indifferent to initiatives that would alleviate the substantial financial disincentives to service by older Volunteers and who sit on these proposals literally for years.
* Country Directors and Associate Peace Corps Directors (APCDs) 9 who lack respect for Volunteers and speak to them condescendingly, treating constructive proposals and requests for support as personal attacks, and then receive contract extensions despite the protests of Volunteers and staff.
* Country Directors who establish a climate of intimidation to stifle dissent (or even constructive criticism) and retaliate against Volunteers who do not defer to the Peace Corps managers.
* A Country Director who delayed and obstructed an application for Peace Corps Partnership Program funding, and then argued that the funding would come too late for the Volunteer to successfully complete the project. The same Country Director obstructed another application, adding multiple layers of additional requirements, and then "lost" it for six months.
* A Country Director who said, "It is imperative to understand the near-futility of trying to accomplish ANYTHING in a two year timeframe and consider that thing to be –'sustainable.'" (emphasis in original email)
* A Country Director who ignored the threat of rabies when a cat, which many Volunteers had petted at a training site, was found dead, until the Peace Corps Medical Officer (PCMO) 10 demanded that it be tested11.
* A Country Director who failed to fix defective beds in a Peace Corps medical center after a top bunk fell on the one below: the Volunteer who would have been in the lower bunk had slept elsewhere that night. 12
* A Country Director who would not even read a proposal that Volunteers developed for a feasibility study of a program to extend modern beekeeping practices and as well as a solid waste proposal that NGOs described as the best Volunteer project they had seen in the country.
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* A failure on the part of APCDs to identify sources of minimal seed funding so that Volunteers can mount demonstrations, the principal means of teaching at the village level.
* An APCD who placed a PCV with an abusive host country family (harassment for sex and money) and then, when the site proved intolerable, refused to help her relocate and accused her of cultural insensitivity. Your browser may not support display of this image.
* APCDs for agro forestry and vegetable gardening programs who do not assess the salinity of water in villagers where they place Volunteers, even though salinity is a major detriment to growing fruits and vegetables.
* APCDs who ignored PCVs' advice, given with substantive reasons, against placing additional Volunteers at their sites.
We do not claim that they are typical and we hope that they are not. We know that many Peace Corps staff are committed to Volunteers, and listen to, respect and empower them. No matter how common these situations turn out to be, however, the point is that the Peace Corps tolerates them, which is ample justification for enacting the pending reform legislation.
We believe it is time that the Peace Corps renew its bond of trust with the Volunteers and empower them to lead. This is what the legislation will promote. The Peace Corps surely has the capacity to renew itself. The threat we see is a decline in the morale and effectiveness of the Volunteers.
It is gratifying to see that the Senate is paying close enough attention to notice these problems and to draft S. 732, a constructive response. The pending legislation is needed to effectively reform the agency and restore it to its founders' vision. We are not simply criticizing; we are here to support specific legislative reforms that address the issues we raise.
This is one section from the testimony read into the record on the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act by Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff, two RPCVs who are now serving their second tour in Senegal. The rest of the sections can be found by following this link. Their entire report in MS Word format can be downloaded by following this link.
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Ludlam and Hirschoff are to be congratulated for their thoughtful and honest testimony. However, as a RPCV who served from 1963 to 1965, I must, most respectfully, protest the romanizing of the early days of the Peace Corps. I am sure that many early Volunteers were treated as colleagues and with respect from staff. That was not my experience in Colombia. Immediately after the Kennedy assassination, we had an influx of staff which changed the character of the incountry administration. The new post of regional director was filled by a man who spoke broken spanish, was contemptuous of PCVs and Colombians alike and whose surname became synonymous with incompetence. One PCV received word that her father was dying. His help was resricted to letting her leave the country, and she arrived in Miami with one dime. Another PCV was allowed to remain in country with a serious medical condition, with the understanding that if he became symptomatic, he would conduct staff to get immediate medical attention. When he became symptomatic, he telegramed the PC office and this bobo showed up and subjected the volunteer to a third degree about why he joined the peace corps, etc....and refused to get him to medical attention. When the peace corps doctor returned from vacation, my friend, this PCV, was medevaced home...and we were given to understand suffered permanet damage because of the delay in getting medical treatment. Women PCVs were treated arbitrarily. I know of two sites which were closed without warning or reason, horrible for the women and the people with whom they worked. Country evaluations done in the early 60s did include an evaluation of staff and this man was soundly denounced. The comment by the director? I will have someone speak with him. I applaud the work done by Ludlam and Hirschoff and think it may well help towards making the staff more responsive. But, there was no "magic time" in the peace corps, except perhaps for the first groups sent off from the White House and protected by the Kennedy political umbrella.