December 30, 2004: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: Literacy: Durham Herald Sun: Sierra Leone RPCV Reginald Hodges will head Durham Literacy Center
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December 30, 2004: Headlines: COS - Sierra Leone: Literacy: Durham Herald Sun: Sierra Leone RPCV Reginald Hodges will head Durham Literacy Center
Sierra Leone RPCV Reginald Hodges will head Durham Literacy Center
Sierra Leone RPCV Reginald Hodges will head Durham Literacy Center
New Literacy Center leader's goals: Partnerships, fund raising
By Ginny Skalski and Tammy Grubb : The Herald-Sun
news@heraldsun.com
Dec 30, 2004 : 10:55 pm ET
DURHAM -- A North Carolina native with an artistic bent and a penchant for helping others said he hopes to continue the work started by the Durham Literacy Center's former executive director.
Reginald Hodges will replace Lucy Haagen, who recently retired, beginning Monday morning, Durham Literacy Center officials said Thursday.
The Greensboro native, who has spent the last two or three days going over Haagen's contacts and donors, said he believes she has done a "fantastic job" in her 10 years with the Durham Literacy Center.
"I plan on continuing most of what she has done," he said in a phone interview Thursday.
Among his goals for the literacy center, Hodges said, is forming partnerships with other area education programs in order to expand the number of Durham residents in literacy training.
"In addition to being a trainer," Hodges said, "we would also become a trainer for trainers by working with other groups that already exist in the city to teach them how to improve their literacy delivery skills."
He also hopes to expand the center's fund-raising efforts by tapping into grants from larger organizations such as the Pew Charitable Trusts and the WK Kellogg Foundation.
"This is all a dream, but I would like to see us possibly getting money from some of the larger foundations," he said, "and I think we can based on the reputation and credentials that the Durham Literacy Center has."
Hodges has more than 25 years of experience in nonprofit management, formerly serving as vice president of Opportunities Industrialization Centers International and the International Foundation for Education and Self-Help.
In both roles, he managed and implemented community-based, nonprofit programs aimed at providing basic education to needy people, and also raised millions to fund those programs. In the black "homelands" of South Africa, as well as in Zimbabwe, Liberia and Ethiopia, he helped to build more than 100 primary schools. Much of that work, he said, involved working with local people and listening to their ideas and proposals.
His work, Hodges said, was aimed at "empower[ing] people to get what they deserve from [the] government after paying their taxes."
In Durham, Hodges also worked for a time as a student teacher at the former J.A. Whitted Junior High School, which closed in 1976.
In 1968, he joined the Peace Corps, leaving for Sierra Leone 10 days after graduating from N.C. Central University.
Much of that work, he said, involved raising money to pay for the group's literacy efforts, as well as for programs related to issues of health and the democratic process.
He later joined the Peace Corps staff, spending the longest time in Ghana, where he was the country's deputy Peace Corps director. Hodges left the Peace Corps in 1976.
In 2000, he returned to North Carolina to be with his father, who had grown ill, he said. Hodges' father died in September.
Hodges, also an artist and art collector, has displayed his artwork in eight exhibits since 2002. His work centers on his experiences in Africa, and while he works in all mediums, he said his favorite is painting with acrylics.
Hodges said he continues to work from a sketchbook that he toted while traveling in Africa. He has visited 35 of the continent's 54 countries, he said.
In 2002, he joined the staff at Alamance Community College, teaching continuing education art courses and adult basic skills courses. But Hodges said the executive director position at the Durham Literacy Center attracted him, because he's worked all his life to make a difference in people's lives.
"This was a good opportunity to get back involved, to make a difference in people's lives," he said.
When this story was posted in December 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| The World's Broken Promise to our Children Former Director Carol Bellamy, now head of Unicef, says that the appalling conditions endured today by half the world's children speak to a broken promise. Too many governments are doing worse than neglecting children -- they are making deliberate, informed choices that hurt children. Read her op-ed and Unicef's report on the State of the World's Children 2005. |
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
| Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying Congressman Norm Dicks has asked the U.S. attorney in Seattle to consider pursuing charges against Dennis Priven, the man accused of killing Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner on the South Pacific island of Tonga 28 years ago. Background on this story here and here. |
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Story Source: Durham Herald Sun
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Sierra Leone; Literacy
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