Peace Corps News

Jim Walsh will be missed in Congress

Nepal RPCV James Walsh has announced he will retire from Congress at the end of his term in January 2009. He was first elected to represent New York's 25th Congressional District in 1988, following in the footsteps of his father, William Walsh, a mayor of Syracuse in the 1960s who spent three terms in Congress.  After running unopposed and collecting 91 percent of the vote in 2004, Walsh beat his 2006 Democratic opponent, Dan Maffei, by a mere 3,400 votes. Maffei immediately began campaigning afterward for 2008.  After the race, Walsh said he had gotten the message from voters angry with his unyielding support of the Bush administration and its war policies. After returning to Congress last year, Walsh opposed President Bush's troop surge in Iraq and later decided that he would support efforts for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops. Congressman James Walsh of New York served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal in the 1960's. Read more.

For 20 years, Walsh has served his constituents well as a moderate Republican voice, particularly refreshing after the GOP gained House control in the mid-1990s.  Walsh stuck his neck out, for example, to oppose GOP attempts to eliminate President Clinton's AmeriCorps national service program. He also opposed deep cuts in the federal food stamp program. And as a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, he brought billions to the region. Most recently, he accounted for $2 million for a crime lab in Rochester, which is outside his district. Read more.

"When I went to Washington," Walsh says, "I wanted to help my community. I had the common councilor's mentality."  Jim's biggest footprint is going to be the money he brought home to his hometown in the form of a project that got to be called the Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative, a banner he waved proudly above TMR. "They can fight all they want to about the earmarks (aka "local pork" grants)," he explained. "We should never give those up, no matter who's in the White House."  So what if he's on the list of top pork-barrelers. "Sue me," he commented with a grin.  Jim said his main goal in setting up the neighborhood grants for Syracuse was to increase the number of people in our town who own their own homes. That goal may not have been reached,  he explained, "but it's been a success because it shows neighbors there is hope, that somebody cares about them." Read more.

Read more about Congressman James Walsh.

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Photo: Rep. Jim Walsh holds his wife DeDe's hand while making the announcement that this year will be his last year of service in the congress. Walsh made the announcement to the press in his office at the James Hanley Federal Building in Syracuse N.Y. His daughter Maureen looks on. Photo: Dennis Nett / The Post-Standard

Congressman James Walsh says it's time to withdraw troops from Iraq

Walsh says it's time to withdraw troops
Rep. Jim Walsh, in a dramatic break with the White House, returned Monday from a trip to Iraq saying it's time to bring troops home and stop funding the war. The moderate Republican from Onondaga representing New York's 25th Congressional District has struggled for months with conflicting emotions about the war. "Before I went, I was not prepared to say it's time to start bringing our troops home," Walsh said. "I am prepared to say that now. It's time." Walsh's announcement came as Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, told House members that the troop "surge" has made progress. But Walsh said he saw little evidence that much has changed in Iraq since he last visited four years ago. He said he hopes to meet with President Bush to convey his change of heart.  Congressman James Walsh of New York served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal in the 1960's. Read more.

Congressman Jim Walsh takes a special interest in Nepal
It goes back a long time. When I was just finishing up my college, I applied for the Peace Corps, and I was accepted in an agriculture program, which surprised me because I had very little practical agriculture experience. I was sent to Nepal. I lived in Nijgarh, Bara. Our district capital was Kalaiya. We had a dera in Birgunj that we shared with four-five of my Peace Corps friends. When we went to the district krishi bikas meeting, we would stay in the dera, and would take the bus back and forth to Kalaiya. It was a very bumpy ride. I worked with farmers in Nijgargh Pachayat. I worked with people who moved down from hills and people who were indigenous in the terai-- the tharus. I grew wheat, corn, rice vegetables. I did a little bit of everything. I was able to see a lot of Nepal while I was there. I traveled to the West: Pokhara and Annapurna, and to Namche and the Everest region. I try to, as best I could, maintain my ties with friends whom I lived with. I email back and forth. I obviously follow the politics and the recent changes in Nepal.

My hope is that I could go and observe the elections. That would be ideal. I think the elections are the critical event in the near term history of Nepal. But when I first came back here in 1991, and the government changed and democracy was established, we wrote to the king, and asked the king to respect the students and people who went to streets asking for democracy. And I saw the impact that the United States had, and I think that the United States continues to play a positive role encouraging democracy. So if I could go for the election, that’s when I would go. Dherai namaskar and namaste to mero daju bhai, didi bahinii, and I miss Nepal, and I am looking forward to coming back. Read more.

Read more about Congressman James Walsh.

Read more about Peace Corps Nepal.

Read more about RPCVs and Iraq.

Recent RPCV Obituaries

Obituary for Nepal RPCV Loret Miller Ruppe
Inspired by her mother, who was director of the Peace Corps at the time and who later, was the U.S. ambassador to Norway, Dr. Ruppe served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal from 1985 to 1987. She married another Peace Corps volunteer and moved to Charlottesville where she received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1990. While pursuing a doctoral degree in environmental engineering from the University of California at David, she completed the demanding Program in College Teaching and taught undergraduate classes. Dr. Ruppe organized conferences aimed at encouraging under-represented minorities and women to enter the engineering field. She also organized the National Science Foundation’s First Women in engineering Leadership Conference. She returned to the Washington area in 2003 to work at AID, where in addition to her role on the global climate change team, she also provided technical support on a range of climate-related issues to missions in Asia and the Near East and was a U.S. delegate to negotiations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Dr. Ruppe received her doctorate in 2005. Read More.

Obituary for Jamaica RPCV Bonita 'Bonnie' Mather
Bonnie's life was rich with service to others. After nursing school, her nursing career began in the early 1950s with assignments in Billings, Williston, North Dakota, and Grand Forks, North Dakota. She received her bachelor of science degree in elementary/special education at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and her master's in special education from Eastern Montana College in Billings, going on to teach regular and special education for Great Falls Public Schools until 1972. She also piloted the first elementary program for the emotionally disturbed. Bonnie again returned to nursing at the Montana Deaconess Medical Center (now Benefis East) in various units from 1985 to 1993. In 1995, Bonnie joined the Peace Corps and served two years in Jamaica as a primary health care and health education nurse. Bonnie retired to her residence in Monarch, where her intelligent wit, keen sense of humor, and desire to give to others made her a fast friend to the community. Read more.

Obituary for Pakistan RPCV Richard Bowman
After returning to the United States, he was among the first employees of the Peace Corps, joining in 1961. For two years, he spoke at college campuses and gave television and radio interviews throughout the country recruiting for the Peace Corps. He served with the organization in Pakistan from 1963 to 1966. Read more.

Obituary for Togo Medical Officer Albert E. Henn
He had been a Peace Corps medical officer in Togo in 1968 before working for the U.S. Agency for International Development. During 1970 and 1971, he served as regional medical officer for the Peace Corps in Washington, where he recruited, hired and trained Peace Corps medical staff and helped to formulate Peace Corps health policies; coordinated international emergency care; represented the Peace Corps with other government agencies; and conducted clinical research. Read more.

Obituary for Thailand RPCV Henry Ginsburg, Curator of Thai and Cambodian Collections at the British Library
Introduced to Asia with a stay in India, Ginsburg nevertheless studied Russian at Columbia, then joined the US Peace Corps, which sent him to Thailand. There he taught English in the provincial town of Chachoengsao, 1964-66. His interest subsequently took him to the only viable academic institution where he could pursue the topic of Thai literature, namely the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. Under the guidance of Stuart Simmonds, he wrote a dissertation on a set of embedded Thai fables, progeny of the Sanskrit Pancatantra, that, as can be learned from his 1975 scholarly article on the subject, serve to discourage humans from allowing identities to be perverted (don't marry a nymph, and remember that the mythic Garuda bird lost his credibility when he allowed the birds he ruled over to see him featherless while moulting). Read more.

Obituary for Malaysia RPCV Norman Leo Haug
He served in the Peace Corps from 1964 to 1966 and was stationed on a Malaysian island where he was often the only physician for a population of several thousand. After the Peace Corps, he joined the Army. While serving in Vietnam, he narrowly survived the Tet Offensive. He was a volunteer physician after the 1998 Hurricane Mitch in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and received many awards including the Colorado Rural Health Excellence Award in 1999, the Civis Princeps Award from Regis University in 2001 and the National Rural Health Practioner of the Year in 2003. Read more.

Memorial tree planted for Uzbekistan RPCV Melissa Reynolds
Reynolds, who was in her second year of the sociology and anthropology masters program, was studying to become a historical archeologist when she came to ISU in 2005. Born in the Netherlands, Reynolds joined the Peace Corps for two years and taught English to elementary students in Uzbekistan before attending ISU. She aspired to become an archaeologist when she was in elementary school and was well on her way to achieving that goal. Read more.

Obituary for Colombia RPCV Bill Bullard
Mr. Bullard retired in 1976, and he and his wife promptly joined the Peace Corps, spending 1 and a half years in Colombia helping to plan new national parks there. Most of the volunteers were much younger, but "we could keep up with them pretty well," Jean Bullard said. Read more.

Obituary for Chile RPCV Charles Grier Johnson Jr.
After graduating from Glassboro High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in forest resource management from the University of Idaho in Moscow in 1967 then joined the Peace Corps and served in Chile. While in Chile, he met and wed Angelica Gonzalez Sotomayor. Read more.

Obituary for Poland and Sierra Leone RPCV Ellen Elliot
Mrs. Elliott's passion for social causes provided the framework for an adventurous life. Her charity work took her to West Africa, Nigeria, India and Poland. In the Bay Area, she championed fair redistricting rules in state government, opened educational opportunities to poor children on the Peninsula, started a message service for inmates at the San Mateo County Jail, fed the poor in East Palo Alto, and, as the public face of the League of Women Voters, advocated for more open government on television and radio.  She tried her hand at book publishing, after returning to the Peace Corps with her husband to help promote tourism in Poland during its transition back to democracy in 1991. While she was leading community-building groups there, Mrs. Elliott was also editing a book about the history of the large prewar Jewish community in the area, "Jewish Bialystok and Surroundings in Eastern Poland." The book was favorably reviewed by the New York Times and is now in its second edition. Read more.

Obituary for Somalia RPCV Laurence Bourassa who led Catholic Relief Services in Cambodia during the bloody era of the infamous killing fields
Mr. Bourassa's life was most notably shaped by two episodes, friends and colleagues said - his stint in Somalia with the first group of Peace Corps volunteers, which first gave him a taste for overseas humanitarian work, and two harrowing years he spent in Cambodia during the bloody era of the infamous killing fields. He first went to Cambodia in 1973, as the conflict in Vietnam was spilling across the border and the brutal Khmer Rouge communist regime was gaining power. Mr. Bourassa was in charge of field operations for Catholic Relief Services, where he worked for 40 years. He provided food, medical assistance and water to Cambodians who were fleeing to government-controlled pockets of the country. He set up a relief operation and field hospital in Neak Loeung, where he briefly was stranded in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge was shelling the city round the clock. "We were in a siege situation," said Pat Johns, the director of emergency operations for CRS and a fellow worker in Cambodia. "We couldn't get a chopper in there to get them out." Mr. Bourassa and several medical personnel finally escaped via helicopter just 12 hours before the city fell to the Khmer Rouge. "When the helicopter landed in Phnom Penh it was a sight to behold," Mr. Johns said. "It was shot to hell. There were bullet holes all over." Read more.

Obituary for Lesotho RPCV Ruth Dunn
In 1984, Ruth Dunn joined the Peace Corps and went to Lesotho, a country surrounded by South Africa, said her son. "You have to remember that South Africa was in upheaval with apartheid," he said. "Nelson Mandela was in prison. Lesotho was not a place you wanted to be." Dunn, described as "about as big as a bird," thrived. Assigned to set up business cooperatives, she became a beloved and trusted member of the community. "Everyone called her 'Miss Ruth,' " her son said. "She adopted a dog she called Chang II after her cat Chang at home, and they went everywhere together. It was the best time of her life. " Read more.

Obituary for Tonga RPCV Ervin "Duane" Lassen
Duane received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from ISU in 1972 and, after serving in the Peace Corps in Tonga, he returned to ISU, where he completed a residency in veterinary clinical pathology and obtained his Ph.D. Duane was an avid runner, weight lifter and scuba diver. He biked the Leadville 100 and was an avid sports fan. Beyond his hobbies and his career, Duane's great love was his family, and he will be missed as a son, husband, father, grandfather, brother, friend and teacher. Read more.

Obituary for Ethiopia RPCV  Claudette Renner
It was natural for Claudette Renner, who passed away Feb. 6, to find ways to help others. She dedicated her life to helping others who couldn't help themselves. She was an active member of the Peace Corps volunteering in Ethiopia from 1965-1967. After Africa, she came back to the United States as a social worker in the Appalachian Mountains. Read more.

Obituary for Mali RPCV Clarence Wilson
Clarence Wilson, born in 1916, was inspired by the exploits of Charles Lindbergh to join the Navy as a pilot. After fighting in World War II, Wilson continued working for the Navy until he was hired in the early 1960s to work on unmanned space exploration by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. He helped launch a satellite in 1963 that allowed the United States to watch the 1964 Olympics from Tokyo, his wife said. When Wilson's first wife died, he joined the Peace Corps in Mali, where he taught agriculture. "He had to learn French in no time flat, because that is what they spoke," his wife said. "He joined the Peace Corps to get his life back together." Read more.

Forestry and the Peace Corps

Nepal RPCV Joe Krueger has been to Liberia four times in the past two years as part of a program that is drawing on skills from the U.S. Forest Service to restore Liberia's timber industry
The Liberian Forestry Initiative came about as a means of re-establishing a viable and responsible industry, as the country operated under a shaky interim government. While the initiative is driven by a U.S. Forest Service team, it is funded by the State Department with the cooperation of the United Nations. The program is aimed at establishing laws and regulations and a general framework for managing Liberia's forests. Krueger said he was tapped for the program because he had worked on a community forestry project in Senegal in 2004, and had served in the Peace Corps in Nepal in the early 1990s. He first went to Liberia in April 2005 and has been back three times since, most recently in December. Krueger said there has been progress in rebuilding the country's timber industry, and a big part of it is due to the relative stability that's developed since last year, when a competent, Harvard-educated president was elected, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

"Right now, the industry is completely unregulated," he said. But many of the pieces are falling in place for an organized, regulated timber industry to start up soon. And there is pressure for Krueger and his fellow advisers to make it happen. "There is a lot of pressure on the Forest Service to get this sector back up and running," Krueger said. "People want to know, where are the logs, where is the revenue?" The old contracts have all been nullified and new ones will be issued under a system that will more closely monitor the movement of products. A "chain of custody" system is being developed to track logs from the stump all the way to their export destination. Read more.

Niger RPCV Clark Fleege helps rebuild Afghanistan's forests
Fleege, who directs the Lucky Peak Nursery for the Boise National Forest, will make his second trip to Afghanistan to continue working on a United States Department of Agriculture project to plant native tree species for reforestation, soil improvement and beautification. The country has lost a lot of its forests to a drought that has plagued the area for the past several years.

"By us going in there and helping improve their natural resources, we can help these people improve their lives and have a more stable country," Fleege said. The U.S. compound where Fleege will stay includes dorm-style housing in metal shipping crates. He will be confined to working in and around Kabul because of safety concerns, and will need an armed escort everywhere he goes. "What we do is management of natural resources, and sound natural resource management is just fundamental for anything, for life: having good water, good soil, clean air," he said.  Read more.

Ed " Redwood" Ring writes: The best thing that ever happened to me was going to Central America to help treeplanters. I was fortunate to have a first-hand look at some of their finest work, when I went there with Stuart Conway, an EcoWorld Hero and co-founder of the reforesting group, Trees Water and People.

Stuart Conway has been living half in the U.S., half in Central America for about 25 years now. He and his wife Jennie Bramhall joined the Peace Corps, went to Guatemala for their honeymoon, and didn't come home for three years. They lived and worked in a small town just south of the beautiful highland colonial city of Antigua. Since then, they return to Central America several times a year, specializing in helping small communities grow trees and protect their watersheds.

Stuart co-founded Trees Water and People (the name grows on you) in 1998 with Richard Fox, a veteran forest arborist, who specializes in North American forest preservation and watershed protection. Both of them moved with their families to Ft. Collins, Colorado, rolled up their sleeves and got their organization up and running. They work along with a small staff in a lofty 2nd floor suite in an old brick and timber building on College Avenue between downtown and the University. Towering Plains Cottonwoods hang huge limbs overhead (Cottonwoods decorate the whole city, and why they aren't planting new ones is beyond me), and just one block north the main train line intersects the street. If you call them and hear a roar in the background, it's just a freight train about two hours on the tracks from Denver.

When the folks at Trees Water and People aren't providing funds and expert assistance growing trees and protecting watersheds in Central America, they are working closer to home, protecting watersheds in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. This is Richard Fox's area, and he brings to his work a lifetime of experience in forests throughout America, but mostly in the Rockies. In his time, Richard has had crews of planters where, using a special planting tool, each person could plant up to 1,000 trees per day. I didn't believe him, but we timed the motions, and I did the math. I guess it's true. We could have fun with this! One thousand people could plant a million trees a day. A billion trees in less than three years!

Planting trees is only part of the solution, though, and managing a forest and a watershed is complex work that is never done. Richard's trees and watershed protection has so far enlisted the support of communities throughout Colorado and Wyoming, mostly along the "Front Range," the eastern slopes of the Rockies.  Read more.

Read more about the Peace Corps and forestry.

Peace Corps Documentary "Jimi Sir" now available for free viewing on the internet

Peace Corps Documentary "Jimi Sir" now available for free viewing on the internet
Filmmaker Claude von Roesgen announces that "Jimi Sir," an original and intimate portrait of Peace Corps volunteer James Parks' experiences as a high school science, math and English teacher during the last 10 weeks of his service in Nepal, is now available for free viewing on "Google Video" at: Google Video: Jimi Sir. The film is also available for purchase on DVD at Amazon. "Jimi Sir" has been called the best movie ever made about the Peace Corps experience.

Take a journey to the rugged terrain that separates the barren Tibetan plateau and the plains of India. Live alongside Jimi, a Peace Corps volunteer in Melung, a days walk south of the trail from Kathmandu to Mt Everest base camp. Delve into the ways of the Tibetan Buddhist people living and farming side by side with the Hindu Sanskrit culture. Witness the Buddhist prayer wheels and flags alongside the Hindu puja rituals. Understand the challenges facing Nepal as its citizens struggle with overpopulation, deforestation, and drinking water quality. Celebrate the festival of Tihaar, a tribute to the animals. Watch Jimi as he strives to finish a water quality and educational development projects before the deadline of his completion of service.

Benefit from Jimi's two years of Peace Corps experience in Nepal as a high school math/science and English teacher by seeing Nepal through his eyes. Jimi speaks Nepali fluently and brings you into the culture. Come to understand what it means for a Westerner to spend two years in the Middle Ages where there are no roads, vehicles, electricity, plumbing, telephone or radio. Experience Jimi's unique perspective on our Western way of life.

A must see for anyone interested in visiting Nepal or has traveled there themselves. You'll feel like you're back in this enchanting land of mountain peaks that reach as high as the highest thunderheads. With rivers that churn their way furiously through narrow valleys flanked by rice paddies rising thousands of feet above the river bed. If you're a returned Peace Corps volunteer, interested in becoming a Peace Corps volunteer, or know anyone who did Peace Corps service you'll definitely want to watch "Jimi Sir."

Read more about Peace Corps Nepal.

Read more about RPCV Documentary Filmmakers.

Peace Corps Supporter Mark Udall to run for Colorado Senate Seat

Mark Udall to run for Colorado Senate Seat
No one can accuse Sen. Wayne Allard of giving would-be senators short notice when it comes to the 2008 Senate race. The veteran Republican's announcement  that two terms are enough clears the way for a number of GOP and Democratic candidates to get organized and run for the Senate over the next 18 months.

Although Congressman Mark Udall won't make a formal announcement until later, he has said he is running. His spokesman, Lawrence Pacheco, said Udall has campaign money left over from previous elections. "He kept his House account open," Pacheco said. The Colorado race is expected to be in national spotlight because the Senate is so closely divided -- 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats -- and because of Democrats' sweeping successes in Colorado since 2004. They have captured a U.S. Senate seat, two House seats, the Legislature and the governor's office, all previously held by Republicans.

PCOL Comment: Mark Udall has been one of the strongest supporters of the Peace Corps introducing and co-sponsoring legislation to expand and strengthen the agency.  Udall's mother served as a volunteer in Nepal.

From September 2003 - Udall Peace Corps Measure approved as part of Foreign Relations Spending Bill
The House of Representatives today approved a measure sponsored by Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO) that would expand and strengthen the U.S. Peace Corps. The House included the measure in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2004, a bill which authorizes $24.2 billion for State Department operations, U.S. contributions to various international organizations and foreign aid programs.  "After more than 40 years, the Peace Corps remains one of the most admired and successful initiatives ever put in place. We need an expanded and refocused Peace Corps that can take on the challenges that September 11th has presented us, and a Peace Corps that can be a strong symbol of our nation's commitment to peace," said Udall. “We need to better understand other cultures, and we need to do a better job promoting an understanding of American values abroad.”

The Peace Corps Charter for the 21st Century Act would amend the Peace Corps Act to increase the number of Peace Corps volunteers to 15,000; encourage the Peace Corps to increase its presence in countries whose governments are seeking to foster a greater understanding by and about their citizens (particularly those with a substantial Muslim population); train all Peace Corps volunteers in the education, prevention, and treatment of infections diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; and create a fund to provide seed money to returned volunteers for community projects.

Nepal RPCV Robert Buckley founds Himalayan Healers to preserve the rich history of healing and energy work in the Himalayas and benefit Sponsored Students from the Untouchable castes of Nepal

Nepal RPCV Robert Buckley founds Himalayan Healers to preserve the rich history of healing and energy work in the Himalayas and benefit Sponsored Students from the Untouchable castes of Nepal
Members of the Untouchable castes in Nepal are considered to be "impure" and "untouchable," and are restricted from entering the majority of community temples, have separate water supplies, and are deemed taboo to touch or be touched by. They are born into these roles, and have extremely limited opportunities to move ahead, living day-to-day, hand-to-mouth simply to survive. At the Himalayan Healers project we are training sponsored members of the Untouchable castes to become "Himalayan Healers" in the arts of Ayurvedic, Tibetan, and Indigenous/Nepali massage techniques, supported by a foundation in Yoga, Meditation, and Reiki.

While the initial focus of our work and our mission at Himalayan Healers is upon providing a credible, positive, effective avenue of social and individual change within the Untouchable community of Nepal, we also recognize that Nepal is a nation in need.

As such, our doors are open to provide assistance to qualified candidates from all backgrounds within Nepal, with a particular emphasis on those who are: Victims of Human Trafficking; those who have been Internally Displaced due to the Ongoing Conflict; Freed Kamaiyas (indentured servants and bonded laborers); and any others of Profound Need.  Read more.

Visit the Himalayan Healers web site.

Read more about what RPCVs who served in Nepal are doing today.

PCVs to return to Nepal on their own after 2004 evacuation

PCVs to return to Nepal on their own after 2004 evacuation
As the Peace Corps program was suspended on September 13, 2004 in the aftermath of the Maoist's attack at the American Center in Gyaneshwor, Kathmandu, the 84 volunteers working in different parts of the country were evacuated. The evacuated volunteers said that they had to leave all their work and projects unfinished. Some were in the planning phase. PC volunteer Andrew Huston was planning to build a library at Shree Ratna Rajya Secondary School at Ramkot, Bhaktapur. Shana Groseclose was developing a rural health initiative program with Nepal Red Cross Society in Chitwan. Ashish Basuray  was working for a training for science teachers in Langtang. He had to leave HIV/AIDs education training uncompleted. Like these volunteers, other evacuated volunteers had to leave Nepal with their work incomplete.

Love of some of the evacuated PCVs of Nepal is so intense that they are raising funds in the United States to complete the projects they had begun before their evacuation. Evacuated volunteers Amy Clark and Gregory Clark, both now working at the PC Headquarters, said they have already collected $8,000 from the Rotary Club. They want to hand over the money to complete a library in Chhorpatan Higher Secondary School and Kanya Secondary School in Pokhara. "We want to visit Nepal to hand over the money ourselves and say good bye on a good note. But we have not been able to do so because of lack of funds for our travel. However, we are hopeful that we will be able to raise funds for our travel as well. We are planning to go to Nepal sometime next summer," the cheerful-looking and optimistic Clarks said mixing English with Nepali.

The evacuated volunteers hope that peace can be restored in Nepal and that the Peace Corps can resume its program. However, Peace Corps says it has no present plans of resuming its program in Nepal. "Peace Corps would require an invitation from the Government of Nepal prior to making an assessment as to whether or not resuming the program would be feasible. .... We have not had an official assessment and, until one is made, the likelihood of resuming the program cannot be guessed," official Zalansky said. Amidst uncertainty of their return, they still cherish the people and communities where they worked, and also the Daal Bhaat. "People to me were as dearer as the mountains," commented Gregory Clark. Shana Groseclose sums up Nepali people's friendliness as, "Sabai janale aunos swagat chha khanos khanos bhanne".

Read more about Peace Corps Nepal.

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers support Fair Trade

Nepal RPCV Damian Jones started Annapolis-based "Aid Through Trade" in 1993 to help provide good employment and fair wages to artisans and farmers in developing countries
Since 2000, Aid Through Trade sales have returned more than $500,000 to the economies of Nepal and Vietnam. Workers from his Admiral Drive company visit either of the countries - sometimes both - each year. The visits allows Aid Through Trade officials to meet the workers, and see their conditions and the environment in which products are being made. "We have to make an assessment of the presence of human dignity, besides looking at wages and exterior conditions," Mr. Jones said. "From a business point of view, that's a big step in the business supply chain." Mr. Jones said he believes fair trade will soon become as popular as organic goods, which are now carried in such grocery stores as Giant and Safeway. "People want to know that their food came from a clean and healthy place," he said. "They also want to know their goods came from a good, healthy, fairly paid source." Read more and leave your comments.

Guatemala RPCV Naren Sonpal Offers Fair Trade Coffee
Naren Sonpal's two-year term of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala ended in 2001, but he's still working to make the world a better place, one cup of coffee at a time. He was 55 when he entered the Peace Corps, assigned to work with cooperatives of coffee and tea farmers in the Guatemalan highlands near Coban. On his return, Naren and his wife, Gun, built a business on his experience in Guatemala and a subsequent trip to India, becoming roasters and blenders of 100 percent organic, shade-grown, Fair Trade coffees and purveyors of organic Fair Trade teas. The Sonpals opened Coffee-Tea-Etc. in December of 2002 in the lower level of their Goshen home. Sacks of coffee beans from every corner of the globe are lined up near the couple's state-of-the-art drum roaster.

"Our coffee comes from Mexico, Peru, Sumatra, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, New Guinea, Costa Rica and Ethiopia," Naren told Voices, "and we know the farms they are coming from. Most multinational companies won't pay what coffee producers need to survive." "The farmers suffer a lot," Naren said. "Right now, they're selling to the big corporations at below their cost of production. When farmers can't make money producing their coffee, they sometimes turn to the production of drugs - and who can blame them?"

Central African Republic RPCV Katie Dyer is co-owner of Cadeaux du Monde, a fair trade shop that sells artwork and jewelry from all over the world
Katie Dyer and Jane Perkins of Newport have done their share of traveling. The mother-daughter duo are the co-owners of Cadeaux du Monde, a fair trade shop in Newpor, Rhode Island that sells artwork and jewelry from all over the world, representing over 40 countries. What is Fair Trade? It's fairly traded folk art, directly from the village. There's not a lot of middle men. It's the same idea as fair trade coffee where the producers actually get a fair price. We buy directly from them so they're in control of their prices.

Read more about Fair Trade and leave your comments.

Congress passes Jim Walsh's Resolution expressing support for democracy in Nepal

Congress passes Jim Walsh's Resolution expressing support for democracy in Nepal
The US House of Representatives passed a resolution on December 6 drafted by Congressman James Walsh, demanding that Maoists must give up arms and violence permanently and live up to their commitments to the government and the people. Reiterating its support for democracy and to holding elections for the proposed constituent assembly (CA), the Congress resolved that the US government supports Nepal's efforts to bringing permanent peace and democracy in Nepal. Congress has also urged the government of Nepal to take initiatives to ensure free and fair elections. Congressman James Walsh of New York served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal in the 1960's.

Read the full text of the original resolution here.