January 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Togo: Red Cross: Chris Hamon is three months into a two year assignment in Togo with the Peace Corps
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January 12, 2005: Headlines: COS - Togo: Red Cross: Chris Hamon is three months into a two year assignment in Togo with the Peace Corps
Chris Hamon is three months into a two year assignment in Togo with the Peace Corps
Chris Hamon is three months into a two year assignment in Togo with the Peace Corps
Peace Corps Volunteer Supports Togo's Red Cross
Written by Lesly C. Hallman , Staff Writer and Photographer, RedCross.org
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 —
Q&A with Christopher Hamon, Peace Corps volunteer
27-year-old Chris Hamon is three months into a two year assignment in Togo with the Peace Corps. Chris was born in Paris, where he lived until age 5 when his family relocated to New York City. After graduating from SUNY Albany with a bachelor’s degree in urban planning (including a semester studying at the Sorbonne in Paris) Chris worked a 9 to 5, but always felt the call to join the Peace Corps. He now lives about five minutes from Togo’s border with Ghana and is the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Adviser to the Togolese Red Cross, supporting the Measles Initiative and other Red Cross campaigns.
Q. What led you to join the Peace Corps?
A. It was always in the back of my mind. I had two French cousins who did their country’s equivalent in Burkina Faso and in Haiti. On their way home from Haiti they stopped to visit me in New York, and I could tell it was a life changing experience just from the look on their faces.
Q. What kind of work have you had before this assignment?
A. I worked for eight months after graduation as a bartender in Paris, and then with a Swiss watch company in New York in was a customer service position. It was a good job, a good experience for me. Basically it was me and two roommates living in the Bronx, commuting to work everyday for two and a half years.
Peace Corps volunteer Chris Hamon assists with bednet distribution at a vaccination center in Kpalime, Togo, about an hour north of Lomé.
Q. What is the process to join the Peace Corps?
A. The Peace Corps has an intense application process. They review your medical history, letters of recommendation, perform a background check, and it all takes about a year from when you apply to when you begin your training. You get to pick a region you prefer, and I was originally scheduled to go to East Timor for an urban planning program, but that was cancelled, so they decided to send me to West Africa because of my French.
Q. What have you been doing since you arrived in Togo?
A. I’ve been thinking about this campaign! It’s hard to even think about what we will do when this is all done. For most of this week I will be in the Maritime and Plateau regions of Togo, helping however I can. My role is also assistant to the TRC director for HIV/AIDS education, so I expect to be doing a lot of field education on prevention, working with HIV/AIDS patients, and perhaps teaching kids about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. I will probably also be helping with the kindergarten at the TRC office, which is great because I love kids, and I may do some organizational work for the office itself, so I think my time working with a U.S. company will come in handy there.
Q. What has your experience been like so far?
A. I’m not a tourist. I live with the people, eat the food, speak the language. I know being here won’t mean I am Togolese, but I already have such a greater understanding of Togo, more than just visiting could bring.
Q. What are your plans once this assignment ends?
A. I want to travel as much as I can when I’m done. I plan to maybe work my way across Africa and get to Madagascar.
Q. What do you think you’ll get most from this experience?
A. I am just really happy to be here. I recommend the Peace Corps to everyone because you get an education you can’t get anywhere else. Everyone I’ve talked to who has done it before said the same thing. It changes your life—I have already seen it happen.
Chris will be documenting his experience with the Peace Corps and the Togolese Red Cross on his website, www.xanga.com/chamon77.
When this story was posted in January 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Latest: RPCVs and Peace Corps provide aid Peace Corps made an appeal last week to all Thailand RPCV's to consider serving again through the Crisis Corps and more than 30 RPCVs have responded so far. RPCVs: Read what an RPCV-led NGO is doing about the crisis an how one RPCV is headed for Sri Lanka to help a nation he grew to love. Question: Is Crisis Corps going to send RPCVs to India, Indonesia and nine other countries that need help? |
| 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. |
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Story Source: Red Cross
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