When Small Things Make Great Things Possible

A 50-year perspective on 10 Peace Corps programs

by John Chromy

Editor’s Note:

“It is way past time for the Peace Corps to tell the story of some of its numerous great achievements. How do we make that happen?” This question was posed by William “Bill” Josephson, a longtime collaborator with Sargent Shriver and who contributed directly to the design and scope of the Peace Corps.

In 2023, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer John Chromy (India 1963-65) decided to take Josephson up on his challenge. To do so, he selected 10 illustrative stories that demonstrate the profound impact Peace Corps has had on communities around the world. The result is the collection When Small Things Make Great Things Possible.

Unfortunately, John passed away in October of 2024, not long after the completion of this ambitious project and its subsequent publication online. You can read a tribute to John and his extraordinary life later in this issue of WorldView.

For this special “impact” edition of the magazine, we’re sharing with readers one story from the collection about a program that has helped thousands of young women around the world reach their potential.

Below is the introduction to the publication from John, published posthumously.

Revolutionary Change: From the bottom up!

From its very founding, the Peace Corps believed that Americans willing to voluntarily dedicate two years of their lives to helping people and communities in countries where there existed great needs, could, in multiple ways, make important improvements in peoples’ daily life.

Since 1961, more than 240,000 American Peace Corps Volunteers have responded to President Kennedy’s call to “serve in the huts and villages” around the world. While not all Volunteers were successful, most experienced some modest success in their communities; a few made large impacts; and in some cases, the cumulative efforts of many Peace Corps Volunteers, in partnership with their host country people and institutions, laid the groundwork for great achievements that have grown, blossomed, withstood the test of time and during a half century changed the host countries forever!

Former Volunteers, staff and supporters of the Peace Corps assured this author that there are many such programs that have had major impacts in countries around the world.

Ten such narratives have been researched and are attached. Read them with care for they will provide a new perspective on the impact Peace Corps Volunteers have had over the decades. Please note these are not technical or thesis-type narratives. They are simply gathering and sharing the stories as best we could from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, some contemporary documents, a few official U.S. government documents and statements from host country officials and Peace Corps staff.

Finally, we must express our immense gratitude to the Board of Directors of the Peace Corps Institute for their early financial support; to Carrie Hessler Radelet, President & CEO of Global Communities, for her enormous encouragement and the assistance of the Global Communities staff in bringing this effort to completion; and our Research Director, Eileen O’Conner, without whose diligent efforts these narratives would never have come together.

Read, enjoy and savor this new view of Peace Corps’ achievements and impact. And know there are many more such stories out in the Peace Corps Community, waiting to be gathered lest they fade into unknown history as the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers involved age and go to their eternal rewards.

I have done what I can!

John Chromy, India (1963–65)
September 28, 2024

READ THE FULL COLLECTION