WorldView Magazine: WorldView Spring 2023
Diary of a First-Time Advocate
8:30AM It is a windy morning when I arrive at our Peace Corps meeting point in an old church located two blocks away from the Supreme Court and the Capitol building. Ever since I moved to Washington D.C., I am continuously amazed and humbled by our nation’s magnificent venues. When I arrive at the church, I am impressed by the large number of former Peace Corps Volunteers who, like me, had served our country in previous years. Everyone I greet is kind as we share experiences about serving on the ground with our global communities. 8:45AM Jonathan Pearson, Peace Corps Advocacy...
Partnering, with People
Following the reintroduction of the Peace Corps Reauthorization Act in Congress last March—on Peace Corps’ birthday no less—hundreds of NPCA members rallied around our National Day of Advocacy, including visits to nearly every office in the House and Senate. The same day we visited the Hill, President Biden introduced his 2024 federal budget, including an increase of $65 million for the Peace Corps. The proven impact of these advocacy efforts affirms our commitment to helping Peace Corps be the best it can be. While Peace Corps is now back in, or will soon return to 60 countries, there are many...
Found Objects: Two Medical Kits Filched from the Field
To assure that Volunteers had ready access to emergency medicine in the world’s remote and sometimes dangerous places, the U.S. Public Health Service issued medical kits to all serving Volunteers for their personal use. Thirty-five items were packed in each metal box. Contents included 100 Aralen tablets, 100 water purification tablets, 25 Band-aids, a small tube of Neosporin ointment, a thermometer, two ounces in insect repellant, a snake bite kit, a tourniquet, 50 tablets of Gantrisin, and five safety razor blades. Peace Corps prohibited Volunteers who had no training from using any of the kit’s contents to serve the health...
Mental Health Hurdles
Serving in the Peace Corps is hard. It’s right there in the tagline: “The toughest job you’ll ever love.” Arguably, the single most important trait of a Peace Corps Volunteer is the grit it takes to overcome the many challenges of working in a resource-poor environment. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began turning lives upside down, more people than ever before have seen their resilience tested. The impact of the pandemic on mental health has been significant across the board, but especially for the young Americans who make up the bulk of the Peace Corps’ Volunteer applicant pool. While the prevalence...
Doubling Down on the Future
As a Volunteer serving in Romania after the fall of communism, Peace Corps Director Carol Spahn worked with entrepreneurs who wanted to start businesses during a time when the country was shifting toward a market economy. Nearly 30 years later, she was sworn in to lead the Peace Corps as its 21st director and seventh woman director on January 11, 2023. After serving as Acting Director since January 2021, Spahn’s nomination was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December. Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA) administered the oath of office after his opening speech where he proclaimed that “Peace Corps is Back” to...
A Walk in (the) Peace Corps Park
When scores of members of the Peace Corps community visited Congress in March 2022 for the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) Day on the Hill, those who made their way on foot from Union Station southwest toward the U.S. Capitol might have passed a spot that will soon symbolize the very Peace Corps ideals they hold dear. Just steps from the National Mall, in a triangular park bounded by Louisiana Avenue, 1st Street, and C Street NW, lies the future home of the Peace Corps Commemorative—the nation’s first commemorative work dedicated to the timeless search for world peace. It’s meant...
Department of D.I.Y.
When Jodi Hammer trained to serve as a community health worker specializing in child and maternal health in Ecuador in 1994, she learned about nutrition, malnourishment in children, and how to identify and treat common health conditions in the absence of health clinics or medical professionals to staff them. One lesson covered the basics of delivering a baby. The Peace Corps gave her a copy of “Where There Is No Doctor”, a basic health guide especially for people living far from doctors or medical facilities. Living in Urcuqui, a village in the highlands of the Andes Mountains, Hammer kept her copy of...
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