Peace Corps Polyglot

Congressman Sam Farr: Peace Corps Champion

(l to r, RPCV/W President Tamar Schiffman, Congressman Farr and NPCA staff Anne Baker and Molly Mattessich)

You could call it the social event of the season for the Peace Corps community in our nation's capital!  This year was no exception as more than 300 people gathered last Friday evening for the annual holiday party put on by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington DC (RPCV/W).  It was a stylin' gathering--kudos to the great team of organizers.

The party had an added touch with the group presenting its first ever "Peace Corps Champion" award.  The recipient was California Congressman and Colombia RPCV Sam Farr.  In presenting the award to the Congressman, RPCV/W President Tamar Schiffman cited Farr's tireless work to press for increased funding for the agency, including his introduction of the Peace Corps Expansion Act of 2009 and his defense of the Peace Corps from an amendment to reduce the $450 million funding recommendation in the House of Representatives.

In thanking RPCV/W for the award, Farr noted that while lawmakers receive numerous accolades over their years of service, this was an award he would particularly cherish.

 

John Hatch Named 2009 NPCA Sargent Shriver Award Recipient

The National Peace Corps Association today announced that John Hatch, founder of the microfinance organization FINCA International, is the 2009 recipient of the Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service.

The Shriver Award is presented by the National Peace Corps Association to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who continues to make a sustained and distinguished contribution to humanitarian causes at home or abroad, or is an innovative social entrepreneur whose actions will bring about significant long-term change. Established in 1986, and with over 20 recipients to date, it honors the tremendous contributions of the first Peace Corps Director, Sargent Shriver, in the founding and development of the Peace Corps.

“John Hatch and his life’s work, beginning with the Peace Corps and continuing today, reflects Sargent Shriver’s hopes for all volunteers; that the Peace Corps service will lead to a life-time commitment to assisting the under-served,” said Kevin Quigley, NPCA president. “John’s pioneering role in Village Banking and creating FINCA are these hopes made real, and he is an inspirational example for the Peace Corps community.”

John Hatch began his service to the Peace Corps in 1962, as a community development volunteer in Colombia and later as a regional Peace Corps director in Peru.  After completing his Ph.D, Hatch founded the non-profit microfinance organization FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance) International, whose mission is to provide financial services to the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their families’ standard of living.  He developed a new microfinance methodology called Village Banking, which brings together ten to thirty people in a community—mostly women—who guarantee small business loans for each other, enabling them to create income-generating opportunities for themselves. FINCA operates in 21 countries of Africa, Eurasia, the Greater Middle East and Latin America, and is currently providing financial services to more than 750,000 people.

Timothy Shriver, son of Sargent Shriver and Chair of Special Olympics International, will present Hatch with the Award at NPCA's "Third Goal" Celebration on June 26th in Washington, D.C.

For additional information, or media interested in attending this event, please contact Erica Burman, Director of Communications, at [email protected], Tel. 202.293.7728 ext 16.

>> Learn more about past Shriver Award recipients.
>> See NPCA press release.
>> Learn more about FINCA and village banking.

RPCV Helps Colombian Kids Get Connected

RPCV Maureen Orth--and the Colombian school named after her--made front page news in Medellin, Colombia recently for receiving over 200 laptop computers thanks to One Laptop Per Child.  The organization worked to get laptops donated by Chevron and an internet connection provided by Motorola to the students in the small town of Aguas Frias, Colombia. 

Orth formed a foundation to fundraise and administer the programs which will now be replicated in other Colombian schools.  In the U.S., she founded K12 Wired to "provide a superior, modern education specializing in English and information technology to children who would otherwise be denied this opportunity," according to her foundation's website. 

To read Orth's own account of this success, check out her article in Vanity Fair.