Peace Corps Polyglot

Fast for Action on Global Warming - September 4th

On the day Congress is scheduled to return to Washington, RPCV Mike Tidwell (Zaire 85 – 87), Director of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council (USCEC) is promoting a nationwide fast to raise awareness of the global impacts of global warming.

"So Others Might Eat: The Climate Emergency Fast" is designed to raise awareness of the moral implications of global warming.  As noted in a recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on global warming impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, it is poor communities with limited adaptive capacities that are especially vulnerable to negative impacts on local water and food supplies.

USCEC is urging concerned citizens to give up food for one day now to draw attention to the fact that others may have no food tomorrow unless we halt global warming. You can register to participate in the September 4th fast and take other actions by following this link.

After Peace Corps, Mike forged a highly successful career as writer, with several books and articles in  publications such as the Washington Post and National Geographic to his credit.  However in the course of his travels he became increasingly alarmed at possible future impacts of global warming.  He set out to make his house as carbon neutral as possible and launched the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, which works at fostering change at the grassroots level in Maryland.  I've had the good fortune to interview Mike and remain incredibly impressed by his unflagging passion.   

Tostan awarded $1.5 million Hilton Humanitarian Prize

Molly Melching's Peace Corps story is unusual both for its beginning and its end.  Unusual at the beginning because she was already living in Senegal and fluent in Wolof when she applied to be a volunteer.  And unusual in its ending in that she never really returned home after completing her two years of service.  Instead, Molly found her life's work in Senegal, developing the incredibly effective non-governmental organization Tostan. 

Tostan ("breakthrough" in Wolof) empowers communities throughout Africa to transform their lives through an innovative non-formal educational program, teaching in local languages and with African oral traditions.  In 2002 Molly received NPCA's Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service for her work and the organization's achievements.  You can read all about this amazing woman in a profile that appeared in NPCA's  WorldView magazine.

This morning Tostan received yet another honor.  The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced that Tostan has been selected to receive the 2007 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize of $1.5 million. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation presents the annual award, the world’s largest humanitarian prize, to an organization that significantly alleviates human suffering.

Tostan first focused primarily on women, but later added men and adolescents.  The introduction of human rights and democracy teaching modules in 1996 created unexpected and unprecedented results:  eliminating discrimination against women and children and motivating more than 2,600 villages, with more than two million people, to voluntarily and publicly abandon harmful traditions such as female genital cutting (FGC) and child and forced marriage.  Further, Tostan is the catalyst behind an historic grassroots initiative announced this week by Senegalese women to be the first African country to end FGC within the next five years.

You can read more about Tostan's work, the Hilton Prize, and the Hilton Foundation in a press release on the Hilton Foundation website.

Congratulations Tostan!!

PeaceCorpsWriters Awards for 2007

Publisher of www.peacecorpswriters.org, Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962–64), and editor John Coyne have just announced the winners of the 2007 Peace Corps Writers Awards for books published during 2006. The winning books and authors are:

• Paul Cowan Non-Fiction Award
  Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years with a Midwife in Mali (Kris Holloway (Mali 1989-91)


• Maria Thomas Fiction Award
  Whiteman by Tony D’Souza (Cote D’Ivorie 2000-02, Madagascar 2003-03)


• Award for Best Poetry Book
  Wild Women with Tender Hearts by Patricia S. Taylor Edmisten (Peru 1962–64)


• Award for Best Travel Writing
  Ginseng, the Divine Root The Curious History of the Plant That Captivated the World by David A. Taylor (Mauritania 1983-85)


• Award for Best Children’s Book
  The Roaring Twenty: The First Cross-Country Air Race for Women by Margaret Blair (Thailand 1975-77)


• The Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award (for best short description of the Peace Corps experience)
  Maid in Morocco” by Orin Hargraves (Morocco 1980-82), March, 06

Winners receive a special citation and cash awards from Peace Corps Writers, an Associate Member of the National Peace Corps Association. Congratulations to all the winners and all the RPCVs who published books in 2006.

RPCV among Capitol Hill's 50 Most Beautiful People

RPCVs are everywhere, so it should come as no surprise that one made in into The Hill newspaper's list of the 50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill.

Jeff Eisenhauer's profile notes: "Eisenhauer is chock-full of interesting stories about his time as an environmental volunteer for the Peace Corps, which he called the “best two years of his life.”

Following his return from Africa a year ago, the 6-foot-1, tanned, surferesque Republican started work as the mail manager for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). The lawmaker and Eisenhauer both hail from Winston-Salem."

First Media Attention on Surface Mail Issue

Washington Jewish Week Online is the first media outlet that we've heard of to run a story on the elimination of international surface mail and how this is affecting non-profit humanitarian groups.  Michael Quint, international coordinator for Books for Israel recently went to Capitol Hill with NPCA Advocacy Coordinator Jonathan Pearson to talk to Congressional staff about the problem. 

Click here to read the story.