Zambia RPCV Michelle Short left for a six-month assignment in Liberia, to work with the World Food Program as a Parent Teacher Association Mobilizer



" I started out working to train PTAs to run effectively. Then in March I switched gears to work in refugee camps with Ivorians who had left their homes due to the outbreak of rebellion against the former president who had lost the presidential elections and refused to step down. In the refugee camps, I monitored the food distributions and talked with refugees as they received their food. I came back to the Duluth area in July. From these experiences, one of the things I've learned is that poverty is relevant. It is something that tends to separate one from other, but really some of the people who I've met and lived and worked among are some of the richest people I know. They come from cultures where faith, family, traditions and history are part of who they are on a daily basis and for this, they are rich."

Zambia RPCV Michelle Short left for a six-month assignment in Liberia, to work with the World Food Program as a Parent Teacher Association Mobilizer

Peace Corps at 50: Michelle Short, Duluth area

I had the privilege of serving with the Peace Corps twice. My first service was in Zambia from 2006 to 2008, as an education volunteer.

While in Zambia, I lived in a village of 250 people with no running water or electricity. I worked to train teachers who had an eighth-grade education, but had the desire to make a difference in their communities. I also worked to monitor schools and teachers to see that Zambian children were receiving an education.

My second service came as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer, where Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have the opportunity to serve again in short-term, high-impact assignments. In January I left for a six-month assignment in Liberia, to work with the World Food Program as a Parent Teacher Association Mobilizer.

I started out working to train PTAs to run effectively. Then in March I switched gears to work in refugee camps with Ivorians who had left their homes due to the outbreak of rebellion against the former president who had lost the presidential elections and refused to step down.

In the refugee camps, I monitored the food distributions and talked with refugees as they received their food. I came back to the Duluth area in July. From these experiences, one of the things I've learned is that poverty is relevant. It is something that tends to separate one from other, but really some of the people who I've met and lived and worked among are some of the richest people I know. They come from cultures where faith, family, traditions and history are part of who they are on a daily basis and for this, they are rich.

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Headlines: October, 2011; Peace Corps Zambia; Directory of Zambia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Zambia RPCVs; Peace Corps Liberia; Directory of Liberia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Liberia RPCVs; Education

When this story was posted in November 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:




Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

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Peasants Come Last Bureaucracy in Peace Corps Washington is like the dark side of the moon - everybody knows it's there but who knew there was so much of it. Read three excerpts from former Uganda Country Director J. Larry Brown's book "Peasants Come Last" about Peace Corps' bloated bureaucracy in Washington, why three Country Directors in the Africa region were fired in the final days of the Bush administration by Acting Director Jody Olsen, and Brown's ideas on the future of the Peace Corps.

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Oct 10, 2011: 50 Years of Peace Corps Leadership Fifty Years of Peace Corps Leadership 10 Oct John Coyne writes: Watching the Peace Corps Hearings 6 Oct Peace Corps to Re-Open Tunisia Program 7 Oct Ralph Bolton founded Chijnaya Foundation 7 Oct Gordon Radley Fulfills Pledge to Fallen Brother 6 Oct Hazle Shorter Delivered Babies in Malawi 6 Oct Chuck Ludlam Opposes Peace Corps Monument 4 Oct Chris Shays Announces Senate Run 4 Oct Foreign Aid to Take a Hit in US Budget Crisis 3 Oct Ron Peters was PCV in Philippines I 2 Oct Taylor Dibbert writes: PC Safety Claims Mostly Baseless 29 Sep Senate Passes PC Whisteblower Bill 27 Sep RPCVs Gather at Arlington National Cemetery 26 Sep Rhoda Brooks is Pioneer Peace Corps Writer 26 Sep Robert Ford is America's Man in Syria 25 Sep Ambassador Kathleen Stephens Departs Korea 25 Sep Gene Cretz is US Ambassador to Libya 23 Sep Adam Klein Returns to Mali to Record Album 22 Sep PC Donates Artifacts to American History Museum 21 Sep Jennifer Monahan designed and built classrooms 21 Sep Bill Bull was CD in Madagascar Liberia and Kenya 21 Sep MacArthur Winner Peter Hessler to Study Arabic in Egypt 20 Sep David Whitman Directs "Technology Benefiting Humanity" 19 Sep

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The First Volunteers? Ghana RPCV Bob Klein has written about Ghana I - the first volunteers to arrive at their country of service. But now as the Peace Corps prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Colombia RPCV Ronald A. Schwartz writes that, in his opinion, the agency's account of its early history is flawed and that while the Peace Corps' web site proclaims that the first volunteers were members of Ghana I, "in fact, the first Peace Corps volunteers were, and are, the members of a group known as Colombia I."

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Congressional Hearings on Sexual Assault Congress held hearings on the sexual assault of Peace Corps volunteers. Read the testimony of RPCVs on how the problem is still ongoing, and not limited to any particular country or region. Director Williams says that "it has become apparent to me that the Peace Corps has not always been sufficiently responsive or sensitive to victims of crime and their families. I sincerely regret that." Read what the Peace Corps is doing to address the issue. Latest: Background on sexual assault of PCVs.

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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.

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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."

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PCV Murder Investigated ABC News has investigated the murder of Benin PCV Kate Puzey. Read our original coverage of the crime, comments on Peace Corps actions, the email Puzey sent her country director about sexual incidents with Puzey's students and with another PCV, the backstory on how RPCVs helped the Puzey family, and Peace Corps' official statement. PCOL Editorial: One major shortcoming that the Puzey murder highlights is that Peace Corps does not have a good procedure in place for death notifications.

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Join Us Mr. President! "We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign. Returned Volunteers rally and and march to the White House to support a bold new Peace Corps for a new age. Latest: Senator Dodd introduces Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act of 2009 .

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