Peace Corps Polyglot

Benin RPCVs Start Girls' Camp Fund in Honor of Kate Puzey

The death of a Peace Corps Volunteer is always devastating, not least for the Volunteer community left behind. In the case of Kate Puzey, a TEFL Volunteer in Benin who was murdered in March 2009, several of her fellow Volunteers are stepping forward to create a meaningful remembrance of her life. On the eve of Thanksgiving, we’re sharing their message with you.

Our names are Megan Grann, Jordan Steiner and Carly Loehrke. We served as TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) volunteers in Benin, 2007-2009. In March 2009, Kate Puzey, a fellow TEFL volunteer, was tragically murdered in her village of service. Kate was an exemplary Volunteer, a true beacon of positivity and advocate for justice. Throughout her service, she was actively involved in projects that benefited youth and women, in particular young girls. In Kate’s honor, we have started the Kate Puzey Girls’ Camp Commemorative Fund.

Kate was involved in the organization and implementation of several girls’ camps during her time in Benin. Girls’ camps are a popular way for volunteers in Benin, in conjunction with host country nationals, to promote the empowerment of Beninese girls. Sessions often include encouraging girls in school, health, women and children’s rights, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, and other issues specific to Beninese life and society. These camps give girls an opportunity to share, learn and play in a safe environment.

Our fund works in cooperation with SIN-DO, a Beninese NGO dedicated to promoting and protecting women and girls, to financially support girls’ camps with grants of up to approximately $200. Last year, 179 girls participated in four camps across the country. Our hope is that with this fund, more girls each year will have the opportunity to attend a camp.

As RPCVs, you know the challenges of empowering youth, young girls in particular. But you also know the rewards - seeing previously shy girls blossom into leaders. Your contribution to the Kate Puzey Girls’ Camp Commemorative Fund will help a new generation of Volunteers and young women to reap those rewards while honoring Kate and her dedication to service and to a brighter future.

Contributions can be made online through the Peace Corps's Benin Country Fund. Click on "Donate" in the right sidebar. In the comments section it is IMPERATIVE to specify “Kate Puzey Girls’ Camp Commemorative Fund” in order for your donation to be routed to the appropriate account. The donation process is anonymous. However, if you’d like, you can email us at [email protected] after you’ve donated and we will send an annual report once the camps have finished. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask!

Thank you very much for your support.

Sincerely,

Megan Grann (Dallas, TX and NYC areas) Jordan Steiner (San Francisco, CA and NYC areas) Carly Loehrke (Chicago, IL area)

Edward Kennedy - Public Service Champion

If you take a look at the website for ServiceNation, you'll see prominently displayed on the homepage a photo of Ted Kennedy, with the words "Thank You Senator Kennedy:  Celebrating America's Greatest Champion of Service." 

Thank you, indeed.  While waging a heroic battle with cancer and confronting the critics of universal healthcare, Kennedy was instrumental in pushing for an increase in Peace Corps funding.  During his 46-year career in the Senate, Kennedy was a steadfast advocate for the Peace Corps.  Most recently, he boldly signed on as one of the first four co-sponsors of Chris Dodd’s Peace Corps Improvement and Expansion Act (S.1382).

 

In a speech introducing President Obama at the signing ceremony for the Serve America Act earlier this year (renamed the Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act by Sen. Hatch in his honor), Kennedy said,

"I will never forget the 5^th anniversary of the Peace Corps where I sat with the very first group of volunteers.  I asked each of them why they decided to become involved and they said it was the first time that anyone asked them to do anything for their country.  Today another young President has challenged another generation to give back to this nation… he said, ‘I believe with all my heart that this generation is ready and eager and up to the challenge.’  Mr. President, I couldn’t agree more.”

The Serve America Act expands and improves domestic service programs such as AmeriCorps.

 

Senator Kennedy also played an important role in 2005 in successfully removing Peace Corps references from a military recruitment incentive program.  In the photo above, NPCA staff met with the Senator in early 2006 to thank him for his support.

 

In responding to the death of Senator Kennedy, NPCA President Kevin Quigley said the following:

“The Peace Corps community lost a great champion in Senator Edward M. Kennedy.  Senator Kennedy heard clearly his brother John's clarion call to service and answered with a life of dedicated public service.  Senator Kennedy knew that the Peace Corps was and is one of the shinning legacies of the Kennedy Administration.  He understood keenly that the Peace Corps was one of the best expressions of our country overseas, and so he was a tireless and effective supporter of it.  This he did often with his longtime friend and Senate colleague, Chris Dodd. Senator Kennedy's stellar example of a life of service lights a clear way for all of us. He will be missed.  We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and all who care about those in need.”

Eunice Kennedy Shriver 1921 - 2009

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, sister of former President John F. Kennedy and wife of Peace Corps founding director Sargent Shriver, passed away early Tuesday morning, August 11 at the age of 88. Eunice Shriver was a life-long advocate for the disabled and disadvantaged.  Inspired by her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, Shriver formed the Special Olympics in 1968.  Today the Special Olympics includes participants from 160 countries.  Shriver enlisted the support of world leaders to ensure that the intellectually disabled live “salvaged lives” worldwide.  For her tireless advocacy on behalf of the intellectually disabled, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award for public service, by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

She married Robert Sargent Shriver in 1953.  Both Sarge and Eunice worked to make the world a better place through peace, understanding and service worldwide.  Together they instilled the value of public service in their five children who carry on their legacy.  Bobby Shriver co-founded global poverty reduction campaigns through DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), the ONE Campaign and Product (RED). Maria Shriver, First Lady of California, is honorary chair of California Volunteers and organized a variety of service, cultural and civic initiatives through her WE Program. Tim Shriver is Chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics. Mark Shriver is Vice President and Managing Director of U.S. Programs for Save the Children.  Anthony Shriver founded Best Buddies International, a mentoring program for individuals with disabilities.

You can learn more about the life of Eunice Shriver, share your own remembrances about her, and read the remembrances of others at a website that was recently established to honor her legacy, www.EuniceKennedyShriver.org.

House of Representatives Remembers a Former Congressmen and RPCV

As the House debated Peace Corps and other appropriations on Friday, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-NY) asked for a moment of silence to remember James F. McNulty, a former congressmen (D-AZ) and a RPCV (Guatemala).

Born in Boston, Massachussetts an enlisted as a drill sargent during WWII, Jim McNulty went on serve as an Arizona Congressmen from 1982-1984.  He then went on to perform a stint in the Peace Corps with his wife in Guatemala.  More details on his life can be found here.

Honoring Their Service: Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers

Yesterday--Memorial Day--our nation remembered those who have given their lives to defend our country in times of war.

We at the National Peace Corps Association also want to pause and honor those Peace Corps volunteers, staff and returned volunteers who have lost their lives far from home while in service to the ideals of a world shaped in peace and understanding.

Pictured is the Peace Corps headquarters plaque commemorating their sacrifice. To read the names of the 273 Peace Corps volunteers who have died in service over the past 48 years, click here.

In Memorium: Catherine "Kate" Puzey

We were saddened on late Friday to learn of the death of 24-year-old Peace Corps Volunteer Catherine "Kate" Puzey, who was found outside of her home in Benin early Thursday.

Kate Puzey, a Georgia native and a graduate of William and Mary College, had been teaching English since July 2007 in the rural village of Badjoude, approximately six hours north of the capital city of Cotonou.

A US State Department official said that she appeared to have been murdered, but neither the Benin government nor the State Department have officially determined her cause of death.

Peace Corps Acting Director Jody Olsen said, "Kate was an exemplary member of the Peace Corps family whose dedicated work as a secondary English teacher in a rural public school in Badjoude, Benin, contributed greatly to the lives of the Beninese citizens. Kate's life and work spoke volumes about the kind of dedication she had to her service as a Volunteer, and the U.S. Peace Corps is greatly saddened by her loss. Our condolences go out to her family and loved ones at this time."

The Government of Benin has expressed condolences to the U.S. government and pledged their full cooperation and support in this matter.

There was a memorial today in Cotonou, and there will be one Saturday in Georgia, 11 a.m. at the Birmingham United Methodist Church in Alpharetta.

Links

Peace Corps Press Release:  Peace Corps Mourns the Loss of Katherine "Kate" Puzey

State Department Statement: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2009/03/120305.htm

Atlanta Journal Constitution obituary: Peace Corps Volunteer's Killing Devastates Relatives in Cumming 

ForsythNews.com:  Family Mourns Slain Peace Corps Volunteer

WSBTV.com:  Metro Atlanta Peace Corps Volunteer Killed

Kate's Blog:  Being In Benin

Maurice Albertson: 1918 – 2009

Maurice Albertson, a professor and humanitarian whose research made significant contributions the creation of the Peace Corps, died at the age of 90 on January 11th.

Albertson’s contributions to the Peace Corps began in 1960 when, as director of the Colorado State University Research Foundation, he was given a contract by the State Department to put together a report on the advisability and practicability of the Point-4 Youth Corps.

Albertson’s report, which later became the book “New Frontiers for American Youth: Perspective on the Peace Corps,” led directly to the formation of the Peace Corps. Sargent Shriver gave Albertson the task of setting up a panel to determine the best way to set up the program and, within six years, the Peace Corps had more than 14,000 volunteers working in 55 countries.

In 1993, Albertson co-founded Village Earth, an organization to end global poverty by helping indigenous and rural communities access resources to achieve sustainable growth. The organization was based on Albertson’s 1960 report, as well as community level development work in places from inner-city Chicago to the Horn of Africa.

Albertson was a professor at Colorado State University, where he helped to develop the Department of Civil Engineering as a world leader in water research. He was given an honorary doctorate in 2006.

Read an interview with Albertson from August 2008.

Obituary from The Coloradoan

Obituary from Colorado local news website

News post from The Philadelphia Inquirer

News post from a Denver blog

Ron Rivera: Potter for Peace

Yesterday's New York Times featured a wonderful tribute to Panama RPCV Ron Rivera, who died in Nicaragua on Sept. 3 of malaria contracted while working in Nigeria.  Writes the Times:

Ron Rivera liked to call his ceramic water filters “weapons of biological mass destruction.” For 25 years he traveled to poor villages throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia teaching local potters to make what appears to be a big terra-cotta flower pot but is in fact an ingenious device for purifying water.

Peace Corps Community Mourns Loss of Bud Keith

The National Peace Corps Association was saddened to learn of the death of Bud Keith, long-time leader of Peace Corps Panama Friends and former NPCA board member. Bud, who was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama in Group 8 from 1965-1967, passed away on Saturday June 14th at the age of 68. Bud was blinded at the age of 11 in a school yard-accident and while in Panama worked with the Helen Keller School for the Blind and other programs for the visually impaired in Panama City. After the Peace Corps he worked as a senior official with the Department of Health and Human Services and was heavily involved in promoting athletic programs for the blind and visually impaired.

A member of Peace Corps Panama Friends had this to say about Bud:

Bud Keith's disability never defined his life. In addition to his work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Panama, he was a leader in the returned Peace Corps Volunteer community. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Peace Corps Association from 1988 to 1991. He was president of the Peace Corps Panama Friends for the past 15 years. He worked with the PCPF Directive to build a strong alumni group to enable our members to stay in touch with Panama and with each other and to raise funds for volunteer projects in Panama. Bud helped Group 8 stay a uniquely close group of friends. Each December, Bud collected and then distributed year-end letters from Group 8 members. More than 40 years of Group 8 news, opinion, and humor. Fittingly, four of this Group 8 friends - Tom Brew, Jim Hannan, Dave Hughes, and Peter Slattery - were with Bud the day he died. Bud's love for Panama never ended, as he continued to visit the country throughout his life, and support projects, especially those serving the blind. He was still working to accomplish one of his life's dreams, to establish a scholarship fund for blind Panamanian students.

In honor of Bud, Peace Corps Panama Friends has established the Bud Keith Memorial Fund for programs benefiting the blind in Panama. People wishing to donate to the Fund can do so by clicking here or by mailing a check made to "Peace Corps Panama Friends" memo "Bud Keith Memorial Fund" to PCPF, 3858 N. Tazewell Street, Arlington, VA 22207-4533.

Click here to read Bud Keith's obituary in the Washington Post.

Peace Corps Community Mourns Loss of Volunteer Catherine Saltwick

The National Peace Corps Association was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Peace Corps volunteer Catherine Saltwick. Saltwick, a former hospital-services supervisor at Northwest Tissue Services, was working on the prevention of mother-child AIDS transmission in Botswana. She also worked to reduce the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, by creating postive images of people living with the disease. Saltwick was killed in an automobile accident in Gaborone, Botswana on May 30th.

Click here to read Catherine Saltwick's obituary in the Seattle Times.

Below is the news release from the Peace Corps concerning her tragic death:

Peace Corps Mourns the Loss of Volunteer Catherine Saltwick
Dedicated Volunteer and Friend to the People of Botswana

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 2, 2008 - The Peace Corps is mourning the loss of Catherine "Cathy" Saltwick, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Botswana. Cathy was killed in an automobile accident Friday night, May 30th.

"Cathy was an outstanding Volunteer, and I had the privilege of meeting her in Botswana last year," said Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter. "Cathy was devoted to helping the people of her community combat HIV/AIDS, and her death is a loss for her loved ones, her family, the Peace Corps, and the people of Botswana."

Cathy, 35, worked in a rural clinic to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and she particularly worked on the prevention of mother to child transmission program. She assisted peer mother support groups in developing an outreach program to demonstrate safe infant feeding to HIV positive mothers in their homes.

In her aspiration statement, Cathy said, "I believe that volunteering for the Peace Corps is the most effective way of combining my unique set of professional skills with my values and other life goals in order to continue to make a valuable contribution to the world."

Cathy is a native of Seattle, Washington, and she is survived by her parents, John and Jeanette Saltwick, also of Seattle. She graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s of science degree in cellular and molecular biology, and she also completed her eye bank technician certification in 1998. Before her Peace Corps service, Cathy worked for the Northwest Tissue Center and the Northwest Lions Eye Bank. Cathy also volunteered at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Seattle.

In 1988 Cathy graduated from Ballard High School in Seattle at the age of 15. At the time of her graduation, Cathy was the youngest graduate in the school's 85 year history. In a local Seattle news report following her graduation, a reporter was quoted as saying, "She is not old enough to drive and she is not old enough to get a job, but at 15 she was old enough to graduate from Ballard High School."