2011.03.29: March 29, 2011: Mali RPCV Scott Lacy is the executive director of African Sky
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2011.03.29: March 29, 2011: Mali RPCV Scott Lacy is the executive director of African Sky
Mali RPCV Scott Lacy is the executive director of African Sky
During his first trip to Mali, Lacy learned that even though he was going to volunteer his services, he would also be a beneficiary to his selflessness. "They taught me how useless I really was," Lacy said about the humbling process of being a Peace Corps volunteer. "How odd is it that I left this country to help people and they ended up helping me more?" Lacy said. Lacy felt indebted to the people that he worked with in Mali and went back to get his graduate degree in agriculture and anthropology. Lacy said he learned three big lessons in Mali: the cycles of debt, following the momentum and learning to take. The last lesson, Lacy said, is the easiest one to learn. "You're going to have to learn to take from us if you're going to give to us," said one of the elders in Lacy's host village. By learning to take something being offered, you are giving the other person self-esteem and building an equal relationship, Lacy said. "If we really want to make poverty history, we have to realize that it's not always about bringing them up to our speed," Lacy said. "If we consume more, they consume less."
Mali RPCV Scott Lacy is the executive director of African Sky
Peace Corps volunteer talks about poverty and the social movement against it
Posted: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 8:38 pm | Updated: 10:41 pm, Tue Mar 29, 2011.
Peace Corps volunteer talks about poverty and the social movement against it
By Alli Kolick, alli.kolick@iowastatedaily.com TownNews.com
Scott Lacy reminisced on the time he spent as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali 17 years ago.
Lacy talked about different social movements and transformations, specifically poverty and looking at various social, economic and agricultural aspects.
"We're here because we all share a common view about poverty," Lacy said.
Lacy is the executive director of African Sky and served in the Peace Corps in Mali in 1994. Lacy has a master's degree in agriculture and anthropology and earned his doctorate at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
While in Mali, Lacy worked with the villages to develop their standard of living in a way that was specifically geared toward their culture.
"The bottom line is, we're here because we all want to do something about [poverty]," Lacy said. "We are part of a social movement to end poverty."
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) produce the majority of work to combat extreme poverty.
"If you add up the economic activity of NGOs it adds up to about $1 trillion per year," Lacy said about their contribution to fight extreme poverty.
Not including volunteers, these NGOs include around 20 million paid employees.
"As more and more people started to step up to end poverty, more governments started to step up, too," Lacy said.
Now, the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals are split up into eight different segments: end poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat of HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability and global partnership.
Millennium Development Goals hopes to end poverty by 2015.
Lacy put all of these numbers into a logical comparison in terms of the U.S. and the rest of the global economy. Globally, $1.3 trillion a year is being spent on military budgets, while NGOs are calculating that it would cost $42 billion total to end poverty.
Lacy said how excited he was about Iowa State's chapter of Engineers Without Borders and how they are the next step in fighting extreme poverty.
During his first trip to Mali, Lacy learned that even though he was going to volunteer his services, he would also be a beneficiary to his selflessness.
"They taught me how useless I really was," Lacy said about the humbling process of being a Peace Corps volunteer.
"How odd is it that I left this country to help people and they ended up helping me more?" Lacy said.
Lacy felt indebted to the people that he worked with in Mali and went back to get his graduate degree in agriculture and anthropology.
Lacy said he learned three big lessons in Mali: the cycles of debt, following the momentum and learning to take. The last lesson, Lacy said, is the easiest one to learn.
"You're going to have to learn to take from us if you're going to give to us," said one of the elders in Lacy's host village.
By learning to take something being offered, you are giving the other person self-esteem and building an equal relationship, Lacy said.
"If we really want to make poverty history, we have to realize that it's not always about bringing them up to our speed," Lacy said. "If we consume more, they consume less."
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: March, 2011; Peace Corps Mali; Directory of Mali RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Mali RPCVs; NGO's; Iowa
When this story was posted in April 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Peace Corps: The Next Fifty Years As we move into the Peace Corps' second fifty years, what single improvement would most benefit the mission of the Peace Corps? Read our op-ed about the creation of a private charitable non-profit corporation, independent of the US government, whose focus would be to provide support and funding for third goal activities. Returned Volunteers need President Obama to support the enabling legislation, already written and vetted, to create the Peace Corps Foundation. RPCVs will do the rest. |
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: Iowa State Daily
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mali; NGOs
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