2007.07.14: July 14, 2007: Headlines: Speaking Out: Telegram & Gazette: Emil Igwenagu said the Peace Corps should be expanded to counter the negative image of America in much of the world. He said the image has been created by the war in Iraq and a Bush administration foreign policy that is widely perceived as “with us or against us.”
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2007.07.14: July 14, 2007: Headlines: Speaking Out: Telegram & Gazette: Emil Igwenagu said the Peace Corps should be expanded to counter the negative image of America in much of the world. He said the image has been created by the war in Iraq and a Bush administration foreign policy that is widely perceived as “with us or against us.”
Emil Igwenagu said the Peace Corps should be expanded to counter the negative image of America in much of the world. He said the image has been created by the war in Iraq and a Bush administration foreign policy that is widely perceived as “with us or against us.”
Emil Igwenagu said the Peace Corps should be expanded to counter the negative image of America in much of the world. He said the image has been created by the war in Iraq and a Bush administration foreign policy that is widely perceived as “with us or against us.”
Center celebrates Peace volunteers
By Mark Melady TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
mmelady@telegram.com
Picture
Caption: Mohamed Kalifa Kamara, right, native of Guinea, leads some of his students in drumming to welcome visitors to Thursday’s celebration of Peace Corps volunteers at the Worcester African Cultural Center. (T&G Staff/JIM COLLINS)
WORCESTER— One night in 1998, Carl Benander — recently separated from his wife and exhausted after a long day of work and an evening workout at the health club — found himself on the couch with a drink and no remote to change the Peace Corps infomercial on television.
“The channel changer was across the room and I was too tired to get it,” Mr. Benander said. “By the end of the show I called and signed up.”
His two years in Kenya were the greatest experience of his life, said Mr. Benander, 78, who was among those honored Thursday night at a thank-you reception, at the Worcester African Cultural Center, for Peace Corps volunteers who did their service in Africa.
Center Director Emil Igwenagu said the Peace Corps should be expanded to counter the negative image of America in much of the world. He said the image has been created by the war in Iraq and a Bush administration foreign policy that is widely perceived as “with us or against us.”
The Peace Corps was started in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy.
“Peace Corps volunteers have a passion to embrace the world with an open mind,” said Mr. Igwenagu. He is a refugee of the Biafra-Nigeria civil war who settled here, and he is a contractor for the U.S. Postal Service.
“The Peace Corps is a tool for propelling peace.”
Despite the good work that 187,000 Peace Corps volunteers have done in 139 countries, Mr. Igwenagu said, volunteers often don’t realize the impact of their service on African countries.
“Peace Corps footprints are all over Africa,” said Mr. Igwenagu, who became interested in the Peace Corps as a youngster in Nigeria. “I wondered who these people were.”
He decided to celebrate their efforts with a reception at the center and invited returned volunteers and those who will soon go to Africa.
Mr. Igwenagu said he hoped the reception would help raise the Peace Corps’ visibility in this area, especially with minorities.
James Arena-DeRosa, director of the New England Peace Corps office, attended the reception. He agreed the corps needs more cultural diversity.
“We want the Peace Corps to reflect the face of America,” Mr. Arena-DeRosa said.
He said the corps, which currently has 7,700 volunteers and trainees working around the world, had an upsurge in recruits after the terrorist attacks of 9-11. He said the number of recruits serving last year was the highest in 30 years.
“People want to do something positive and constructive,” Mr. Arena-DeRosa said.
While the corps still attracts primarily young people — the median volunteer age is 25 — more and more older recruits such as Mr. Banander are joining.
“They still remember Kennedy’s call to service and want to respond,” he said. “We need them because a number of positions require an advanced degree or 10 years experience in a field.”
Gary and Margaret Skrinar of Framingham, exercise physiologists at Boston University, are answering a call she heard in 1966. As a University of California-Davis graduate, she was poised to go into the Peace Corps. However, marriage intervened. Yet the intent to serve someday in the Peace Corps never left her.
“We started talking about what we might do in retirement,” said Mr. Skrinar. “I said I thought I’d play a ton of golf. She said ‘Peace Corps.’ So now we’re going to sub-Saharan Africa.”
They will leave for a still-to-be-determined African country in January for three months of training and two years of service. He will work in a health-related field. She will coordinate Peace Corps activities with non-governmental agencies. Anticipating leaving, they have sold their Holliston home and convinced their three adult children that they have not flipped out.
“They were concerned about our safety,” Mr. Skrinar said. “We were, too, but if we’re in any danger, the Peace Corps has assured us, they will get us out in 24 hours.”
Mrs. Skrinar said she has always believed in service to a greater good and cross-cultural experience. “Now I want to see if I can walk that talk,” she said.
Mr. Benander, owner of Mechanics Bliss Supply Co. in Worcester, spent 27 months in the Peace Corps, from 1998 to 2001 — three months in training and two years in Kenya showing Kenyans how to get broken hydraulics and other machinery up and running again. At night, he taught marketing and management at a university.
“I have a much greater understanding of how people live,” Mr. Benander said. “There was extreme poverty and the corruption is terrible. If you wanted to get a permit to have water in your house you would have to pay 30 shillings just to get the application form to fill out. There would be six to eight people to pay off. But we have the Big Dig corruption. The difference is, in Kenya it’s more in the open.”
His life in Kenya taught him that people are people no matter where they live. “The Kenyans are good, decent, honorable people who don’t like what they call bad behavior any more than we do,” he said.
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Headlines: July, 2007; Speaking Out
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Story Source: Telegram & Gazette
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