December 8, 2005: Headlines: COS - Benin: Somerville Journal: Suzanne Kratzig was Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Benin:
Peace Corps Benin :
The Peace Corps in Benin:
December 8, 2005: Headlines: COS - Benin: Somerville Journal: Suzanne Kratzig was Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin
Suzanne Kratzig was Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin
During her 27 months in Benin, Kratzig's primary duties consisted of teaching English to seventh-, 11th- and 12th-graders. Her average class size was 80 students, and she worked to incorporate HIV/AIDS information and gender and environmental issues into the curriculum.
Suzanne Kratzig was Peace Corps Volunteer in Benin
Kratzig teaches with Peace Corps
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Somerville resident Suzanne Kratzig, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, recently returned to the United States following two years of service with the Peace Corps.
Kratzig worked as an English teacher in Benin and lived, without electricity, in N'Dali, a large village in the country's northern region. Benin, which is along the coast of West Africa, shares borders with Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria. Following the decade of military rule that occurred after its independence in 1960, Benin has maintained a reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies. However, it remains one of the world's poorest nations, with an urgent need for human and material resources. Volunteers like Kratzig help to address these issues through a wide range of educational programs.
During her 27 months in Benin, Kratzig's primary duties consisted of teaching English to seventh-, 11th- and 12th-graders. Her average class size was 80 students, and she worked to incorporate HIV/AIDS information and gender and environmental issues into the curriculum. Additional projects included extensive work with a gender and development committee, and organizing a leadership camp for 48 girls from local small towns and villages.
She graduated from Colorado College in 2000 with a bachelor of arts degree in romance languages. She went on to work as a resident assistant at the EF International Language School, taught English in France, and taught English as a Foreign Language at the Boston School of Modern Languages before joining the Peace Corps in 2003. Having returned to the U.S., she plans to put her Peace Corps skills to use with a job in international education.
She cites the main benefits of her service as learning how to organize and execute major projects, exposure "to a world of other job opportunities in development that I wouldn't have known about otherwise," and lasting cross-cultural friendships.
When this story was posted in December 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| 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. |
| Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 years Congratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now. |
| 'Celebration of Service' a major success The Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here. |
| PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident" The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted. |
| The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today. |
| 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. |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Somerville Journal
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Benin
PCOL24090
68