2007.03.09: March 9, 2007: Headlines: COS - Honduras: Texxessean: Andrew Barrett is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Honduras:
Peace Corps Honduras:
Peace Corps Honduras: Newest Stories:
2007.03.09: March 9, 2007: Headlines: COS - Honduras: Texxessean: Andrew Barrett is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras
Andrew Barrett is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras
“The opportunity to live and work in a community for two years allows time to building relationships with community members, to discover their needs and desires and with their participation develop ways to achieve community goals. Peace Corps emphasis on participatory analysis and action is a vital part of why the organization has been successful for so many years. It’s not about giving away money, which only creates dependence, but rather helping people to help themselves,” he said.
Andrew Barrett is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras
Volunteering takes Barrett to Honduras
HHS graduate spends time with the Peace Corps
For The Star News
Andrew Barrett of Hendersonville has always had a sense of duty when it comes to helping others.
This is a value he learned from family and through mission trips with Bluegrass Baptist Church.
Barrett has now turned the knowledge that he has an obligation to help others into action serving for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras.
“I was lucky to have been raised with a value system that emphasized the importance of helping others. I was taught that we have a duty to ensure the well-being of all people and from a young age was encouraged to act,” said Barrett, who recently returned from South America.
His service to the Peace Corps came through the Master’s International Program in Horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a program he entered in 2003.
The Hendersonville High School graduate was already in Madison, Wis. providing support for the Dane County Food Pantry Network when he got the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps.
The horticulture program gave Barrett the chance to address to issues about which he feels a passion.
“Both environmental degradation and the hardships facing persons experiencing poverty are issues that are very important to me. As a Peace Corps volunteer, I could work to address both. The Master’s International option was especially useful, as I was assigned a Peace Corps project that took advantage of my experience and education.”
After one year of master’s coursework at the University of Wisconsin, Barrett left home to serve with the Protected Areas Management project in Honduras.
He had three months of language and technical training and then moved to the small mountain town of El Cantoral, population 170.
Barrett said his main purpose was to support small farmers by improving production and at the same time minimizing the often devastating environmental and health impacts of agriculture.
“With increasing population pressure and most of the 20% of arable land in Honduras taken up by large-scale producers and landholders. Campesinos are working on ever more marginal lands to try and make a living,” Barrett said.
A Peace Corps volunteer rarely works on only one project, and Barrett also found funding from the USAID/Peace Corps Small Project Assistance program to help improve sanitary conditions for residents.
The University of Tennessee graduate also worked on a model farm project to install drip irrigation, build farm storage facilities and a vegetable packaging house, and ensure the health of both producers and consumers.
He led environmental education classes for elementary school students, and held cooking and nutrition sessions with women’s groups.
“The opportunity to live and work in a community for two years allows time to building relationships with community members, to discover their needs and desires and with their participation develop ways to achieve community goals. Peace Corps emphasis on participatory analysis and action is a vital part of why the organization has been successful for so many years. It’s not about giving away money, which only creates dependence, but rather helping people to help themselves,” he said.
The role of the Peace Corps, Barrett believes is increasingly important in the today’s world political climate.
With what he believes is growing anti-American sentiment in the world, organizations like the Peace Corps are integral to providing cultural exchange, to building positive relationships with other nations and changing public perception about America,” Barrett said.
At the same time, America’s own perception of our contribution to foreign aid needs some correction, he believes.
According to Barrett surveys show Americans generally grossly overestimate the amount of the federal budget that goes to foreign aid. Most surveys show that Americans believe we spend 15% or more on foreign aid, while the reality is that we spend less than 1%.
“We all have to do more. We have to start thinking more about others here in America and around the world. Whether it’s volunteering in our own community or on the other side of the world, we have to commit ourselves to alleviate the suffering that is all around us,” he said.
Barrett’s work with the Peace Corps was not his first experience in volunteering.
In high school he participated in the Student Conservation Association in Yosemite National Park and at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, he participated in student organizations like Alliance for Hope, Amnesty International and SPEAK (Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville).
He also volunteered for two years of community service with AmeriCorps.
The son of Andy and Marcella Barrett of Hendersonville, Barrett is currently continuing his graduate education in Horticulture and Agroecology at UW-Madison.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: March, 2007; Peace Corps Honduras; Directory of Honduras RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Honduras RPCVs; Peace Corps Library; Peace Corps Directory; Peace Corps History; Peace Corps Message Board; Peace Corps Headlines
When this story was posted in July 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Dodd issues call for National Service Standing on the steps of the Nashua City Hall where JFK kicked off his campaign in 1960, Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd issued a call for National Service. "Like thousands of others, I heard President Kennedy's words and a short time later joined the Peace Corps." Dodd said his goal is to see 40 million people volunteering in some form or another by 2020. "We have an appetite for service. We like to be asked to roll up our sleeves and make a contribution," he said. "We haven't been asked in a long time." |
| Public diplomacy rests on sound public policy When President Kennedy spoke of "a long twilight struggle," and challenged the country to "ask not," he signaled that the Cold War was the challenge and framework defining US foreign policy. The current challenge is not a struggle against a totalitarian foe. It is not a battle against an enemy called "Islamofascism." From these false assumptions flow false choices, including the false choice between law enforcement and war. Instead, law enforcement and military force both must be essential instruments, along with diplomacy, including public diplomacy. But public diplomacy rests on policy, and to begin with, the policy must be sound. Read more. |
| Ambassador revokes clearance for PC Director A post made on PCOL from volunteers in Tanzania alleges that Ambassador Retzer has acted improperly in revoking the country clearance of Country Director Christine Djondo. A statement from Peace Corps' Press Office says that the Peace Corps strongly disagrees with the ambassador’s decision. On June 8 the White House announced that Retzer is being replaced as Ambassador. Latest: Senator Dodd has placed a hold on Mark Green's nomination to be Ambassador to Tanzania. |
| Peace Corps Funnies A PCV writing home? Our editor hard at work? Take a look at our Peace Corps Funnies and Peace Corps Cartoons and see why Peace Corps Volunteers say that sometimes a touch of levity can be one of the best ways of dealing with frustrations in the field. Read what RPCVs say about the lighter side of life in the Peace Corps and see why irreverent observations can often contain more than a grain of truth. We'll supply the photos. You supply the captions. |
| PCOL serves half million PCOL's readership for April exceeded 525,000 visitors - a 50% increase over last year. This year also saw the advent of a new web site: Peace Corps News that together with the Peace Corps Library and History of the Peace Corps serve 17,000 RPCVs, Staff, and Friends of the Peace Corps every day. Thanks for making PCOL your source of news for the Peace Corps community. Read more. |
| Suspect confesses in murder of PCV Search parties in the Philippines discovered the body of Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Campbell near Barangay Batad, Banaue town on April 17. Director Tschetter expressed his sorrow at learning the news. “Julia was a proud member of the Peace Corps family, and she contributed greatly to the lives of Filipino citizens in Donsol, Sorsogon, where she served,” he said. Latest: Suspect Juan Duntugan admits to killing Campbell. Leave your thoughts and condolences . |
| Warren Wiggins: Architect of the Peace Corps Warren Wiggins, who died at 84 on April 13, became one of the architects of the Peace Corps in 1961 when his paper, "A Towering Task," landed in the lap of Sargent Shriver, just as Shriver was trying to figure out how to turn the Peace Corps into a working federal department. Shriver was electrified by the treatise, which urged the agency to act boldly. Read Mr. Wiggins' obituary and biography, take an opportunity to read the original document that shaped the Peace Corps' mission, and read John Coyne's special issue commemorating "A Towering Task." |
| Chris Dodd's Vision for the Peace Corps Senator Chris Dodd (RPCV Dominican Republic) spoke at the ceremony for this year's Shriver Award and elaborated on issues he raised at Ron Tschetter's hearings. Dodd plans to introduce legislation that may include: setting aside a portion of Peace Corps' budget as seed money for demonstration projects and third goal activities (after adjusting the annual budget upward to accommodate the added expense), more volunteer input into Peace Corps operations, removing medical, healthcare and tax impediments that discourage older volunteers, providing more transparency in the medical screening and appeals process, a more comprehensive health safety net for recently-returned volunteers, and authorizing volunteers to accept, under certain circumstances, private donations to support their development projects. He plans to circulate draft legislation for review to members of the Peace Corps community and welcomes RPCV comments. |
| He served with honor One year ago, Staff Sgt. Robert J. Paul (RPCV Kenya) carried on an ongoing dialog on this website on the military and the peace corps and his role as a member of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have just received a report that Sargeant Paul has been killed by a car bomb in Kabul. Words cannot express our feeling of loss for this tremendous injury to the entire RPCV community. Most of us didn't know him personally but we knew him from his words. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends. He was one of ours and he served with honor. |
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: Texxessean
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Honduras
PCOL37340
73