NPCA Leads Effort to Protect Peace Corps Ideals

Join us for a town hall on Thursday, February 6th, at 8:00 PM to discuss the latest updates and happenings.

Including: Open Mic, Q&A, and Exclusive Updates from Peace Corps.

Register here.

At this time, no actions by the new administration have been focused solely on the Peace Corps, and volunteers remain on the job.

However, a variety of Executive Orders are having several serious impacts on agency and volunteer operations. At the same time, thousands of individual Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have proudly served in various government agencies, or who work for/contract with non-governmental organizations that provide critical global development support and humanitarian relief are facing existential threats to their work.

Peace Corps has not issued any public statement to current PCVs, however, current PCVs have been told that their projects are no longer funded and they need to be given new assignments (especially HIV work with PEPFAR funding).

  • The most impacted of all Peace Corps Volunteers might be Health Volunteers. Especially those that are working with Project Hope, (which is 100% PEPFAR), since those projects have been shut down.
  • Certain posts have also shut down secondary project grants until further notice.
  • Farmer-to-Farmer received stop-work orders from USAID based on the reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid executive order. Due to this, Farmer-to-Farmer will be part of the 90-day review from the Secretary of State. During this time, the Farmer-to-Farmer Program has been instructed to suspend performance until otherwise notified. Therefore, NPCA’s partnership with them has halted.

 

NPCA is monitoring the situation and we will be releasing further updates during our Town Hall this Thursday.

 

Until then,  we are stepping up its efforts to advocate for Peace Corps ideals and protection of PCVs and affected RPCVs.

Items to note for the week:

  1. Outreach to Congress: As part of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, NPCA is working with partner organizations to engage lawmakers on the dangers of a proposed foreign assistance funding freeze and stop-work orders affecting development programs.
  2. Letter Writing Campaign: NPCA is urging supporters to directly contact their representatives and voice their concerns, using this link.
  3. USAID Rally: Washington, DC: A rally organized by USAID alumni is planned for Wednesday near the U.S. Capitol, showing solidarity with current USAID staff facing challenges due to policy changes. NPCA is alerting its community to participate. Learn more about this event here.
  4. NPCA Affiliate Groups: NPCA plans to provide guidance to the affiliate groups on how to engage at the state and local level to influence/advocate Peace Corps and affected RPCVS.
  5. NPCA Virtual Town Hall: We will host our virtual town hall this Thursday, at 8:00 PM Eastern. Register here. Join us for an important discussion with NPCA for Exclusive Peace Corps Updates from President Dan Baker and the impact of foreign assistance changes on PCVs & RPCVs. It’s open mic, so come ready to share your concerns on the latest pressing issue, including the federal hiring freeze and the foreign assistance freeze.

If you have firsthand insights on how the Peace Corps is being impacted, share them with us at [email protected].

 

 

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