While the Peace Corps has grown and developed drastically over its 50 years of existence, one thing has remained constant — the organization’s impact on the lives of its volunteers. In 1961, the year the Peace Corps was established, Earle Brooks, then 28, and his wife Rhoda, 26, left their home in Minnesota to serve in the small village of Manta, Ecuador, according to the Minneapolis StarTribune.

“Right from the beginning, we believed in the spirit of the Peace Corps,” Rhoda said. “We weren’t idealists. We knew that there were going to be hardships. But we didn’t look upon it as a sacrifice; we saw it as an opportunity.” She laughed before adding: “Well, maybe we were idealists.”

The StarTruibune said the young couple was prepared for the culture shock they’d feel upon arriving in Ecuador, but Rhoda said what they experienced “was almost surreal.” There was for example no water or sewer system in Manta. But the harsh conditions didn’t stop the young couple from falling in love with their new home and the people of Ecuador.

“It gave me a zest for life that I don’t think I would have realized had I just stayed in Minnesota,” Rhoda said of her Peace Corp experience. “The impact on our lives was not something we anticipated when we joined.” Earle and Rhoda adopted two children during their service – Rico was 4, and Carmen 2, by the time the couple returned with them to the United States, according to the StarTribune.

On September 22, 1961 Congress approved the creation of the Peace Corps, launching the movement to “promote world peace and friendship.” To date, the Peace Corps has had more than 200,000 volunteers serving in 139 countries. A more recent volunteer, Lauren, shared her Peace Corps experience on a blog she kept throughout her service in South America.

On September 29, 2004 Lauren’s first blog post is titled “Preparing for the adventure.” In the entry, Lauren expresses excitement to start her Peace Corps journey in Honduras beginning January 2005. “Now that I know where I am going, I have been slighly distracted since I absolutely must google every Honduras related thought that runs through my head.

Common Google searches include ‘Honduras what to pack’, ‘Honduras pictures’, ‘Honduras safety tips’, ‘Honduras scuba diving’, ‘Honduras peace corps stories,’” Lauren wrote. In 2008, after her service, Lauren posted a reflection on her time in Honduras, conveying how much the Peace Corps meant to her.

“I miss so many things about Peace Corps…the freedom, the rich experiences, the laughs, the adventures, the adoration, the humiliation, and everything that makes up a wonderful Peace Corps experience. If you are considering it – DO IT. I hope to do it again someday!”

Lauren is among the many Peace Corps volunteers who use blogs to document the sights, people, and events that comprise their two years away from home. On the online community, Peace Corps Journals, countless volunteers write about their experiences around the world.

Patricia’s latest entry, written on September 17, speaks about a Saturday morning in Bulgaria. “Today I wanted to go for my usual, longer weekend morning walk in search of treasure.” Her writing provides evidence that the Peace Corps experience enrich volunteers with new perspectives, simple admiration, and perhaps even greater introspection.

“This is the first time I’ve picked walnuts and hazelnuts off of trees. I never realized that walnuts grow inside a big green shell (kind of like coconuts do) or that hazelnuts are like peas in a pod…” To celebrate the accomplishments of Peace Corps and the many lives it has touched over the years, various events will take place Sept 21th through the 24th in Washington, D.C. 

According to the StarTribune, Earle and Rhoda Brooks knew they wanted to be apart of the big celebration. They have watched the Peace Corps grow into “one of the world’s most influential aid operations.” The couple plans to make the journey to D.C. to share with others how much the Peace Corp enriched their lives, 50 years ago.

If you would like to Volunteer, call the Peace Corps toll-free at 800.424.8580 to speak to a recruiter in your area. You can also apply now and get started on your application by going directly here: Join The Peace Corps

Image Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorps/

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The Peace Corps is one of the boldest social and cultural transformation efforts in world history. The organization is now celebrating its 50^th anniversary. Like reaching any significant milestone, the organization will probably review its past, reflect on the present challenges and try to gauge its mission for the future.

My knowledge of the Peace Corps came initially as a student at Lincoln University (PA) when the distinguished attorney Franklin Robinson [shown above], a Lincoln University graduate in the class of  1941, came back to speak at the university. Mr. Franklin, a tall stately gentleman, elegantly dressed and eloquent in his speech urged students to consider service in the Peace Corps upon graduation. He explained that the Peace Corps was a vehicle created by president John Kennedy to go into the communities of the world and help improve the lives of ordinary citizens. And, he said the basic concept and model for the Peace Corps had come from another Lincoln University graduate, Dr. James F. Robinson, the founder of Operations Crossroads Africa in 1958.

Franklin Williams was then serving as assistant to Sargent Shiver, the first director of the Peace Corps, who had been appointed to that position by his brother-in-law President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy had established the Peace Corps as one of his first official presidential acts in March 1961. The Peace Corps was and still is a volunteer program, an outreach program designed to assist in countries that ask for its assistance with education, agriculture, health care and local infrastructure construction like roads and wells.

Many Lincoln University students joined the Peace Corps after Williams’ visit and many others spent summers in the Operation Crossroads program that spawned one of Kennedy’s most noble contributions, in my opinion, to the world. Today nearly over 200, 000 Peace Corps volunteers have make contributions to the lives of people in need of assistance in 130 countries as far afield as the Philippines and Colombia.

How do you measure a dream? How do you gauge the impact of a people-to-people outreach assistance program of the magnitude of the Peace Corps? Undoubtedly the many members of the Peace Corps family will attempt to answer those questions when they gather in Washington the third week of September. They may also look at the allegations, met with many by skepticism, that the Peace Corps has been in some instances infiltrated by intelligence gathering agencies. The Peace Corps family may even review and make comparisons with the work of other efforts offering somewhat similar kinds of programs, such as that proffered by USAID, the World Bank, and UNDP.

The answers to the questions of “of what worth” may not be answerable in the aggregate. Perhaps they may only be answered in the way volunteers touched individual lives and individual small villages in places that still benefit from that interaction.

I asked some former Peace Corps volunteers for their informal impressions of the organization and what they thought people really did not know.

One Peace Corps volunteer, a university classmate, who had attended the university assembly where I first heard Franklin Williams speak so many decades ago, said, “Peace Corps has never been able to recruit African Americans in any sizeable numbers, even for service to Africa….  When I returned to the States in ’68, I recruited on the campuses of HBCU’s.  The reluctance to join the Peace Corps varied:  ‘How can I learn an African language when learning English was hard enough?’ ‘You make how much?  Fifty cents an hour! Are you crazy.’ ‘Why should I take my talents to Africa when my people here are in need of them?’ There was also the issue of paying back student loans.  I must confess, most of the inquiries about Peace Corps came from Sisters. I got the impression that mothers were afraid of seeing their daughters going off to the “Dark Continent.” Nonetheless, most of the African American volunteers I came across in Africa were women.  If the brothers were not in Nam, or involved in The Movement, or in jail, where were they? … What a time to be in Uganda from ’66-’68–Teaching at Sebei College  on the verdant slopes of Mt. Elgon, overlooking the Teso Plains, and then descending the mountain to dodge Idi  Amin’s troops/thugs. I survived, and what a graduate school the experience was.”

Another Peace Corps woman volunteer who served in Asia and met her husband at her assignment post said, “People don’t know much about the Peace Corps and what an enriching experience it can be.” Her comment may have some validity. Despite the longevity of the Peace Corps, and the many friends I had that participated as volunteers, later as staff or coordinators in the field, until notices of this 50^th birthday celebration, I had thought Peace Corps had faded into the past. Once there were television commercials and brochures, but I haven’t seen them in years. Perhaps, the Peace Corps’ presence today is enough to continue to recruit volunteers or there are other mechanisms for promoting interests in service.

Later Lincoln University became a Peace Corps training site. From observing the training and the trainees, I gained my first impressions of Peace Corps people. They were generally optimistic people out to help the world. They were on the Hippie fringe, cross-generational and multi-ethnic. They spoke like evangelists, and weren’t interested in the superficialities of dress or makeup. They were intelligent even though they were wide-eyed optimist about a world really too large to comprehend. I do not know if my assessments can be generalized across other Peace Corps training sites or Peace Corps itself. What does matter is the extent to which this noble experiment has been a success.

No doubt the participants in the 50^th Anniversary celebration will devote some attention to who was and is Peace Corps, and what has and has not been accomplished. They will surely address that usual question, “Where do we go from here?”

Another of my respondents answered my question, “What is it about the Peace Corps you think most people don’t know?” He was a former volunteer and overseas staff member, and later a member of Washington’s senior staff. He answered “That Peace Corps still exists and provides the same unbounded and life changing opportunities as ever…”

Whatever comes during the celebration of 50 years of Peace Corps in Washington, DC the third week of September, it is certain that Peace Corps has changed many Americans worldview and how unknown numbers of people in the world view America. Peace Corps is an extraordinary experiment in humanity and sharing.

Happy 50^th birthday, Peace Corps. You done got good and grown. Many happy returns.

VIDEO:

Image Content: OCA founder James Herman Robinson and Members of the Peace Corps

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On the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps foundation, we look back at a public service movement whose more than 8,600 volunteers are currently sharing the knowledge and inspiration of the American people in 77 countries worldwide. The Peace Corps volunteers have made a difference in local communities for half a century, working as community leaders, teachers and mentors.

In light of this anniversary, the United States will honor over 200,000 Americans who have served in 139 countries as well as thank the countries who have welcomed the Peace Corp volunteers into their communities, allowing the organization to carry out its works.

March 1, 1961 – President John F. Kennedy signs off on the launch of a pilot program which the newly elected President has named the Peace Corps. Its goal is to help interested countries develop the skills of their nations men and women as well as increase the mutual understanding between the American people and the people they serve. Sargent Shriver becomes the program’s first director.

In his inaugural address, President Kennedy said — “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

June 30, 1962 – Volunteers commence programs in a total of 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Cameroon, Ecuador, Iran, Nepal and Thailand.

June 1966 – Since the programs official authorization in September 1961, just five years prior, the number of volunteers increased to 15,000 which is the organization’s largest number to date.

1971 – Along with several other programs including the Foster Grandparent Program and the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, the Peace Corps is sectioned under a new federal volunteer agency called ACTION by President Nixon.

1977 – President Carter appoints Carolyn Robertson Payton to be the first female and first African American Peace Corps director.

1979 – After a period under the umbrella agency ACTION, the Peace Corps was made fully autonomous under orders of President Jimmy Carter, a status which is secured by 1981, making the organization an independent federal agency.

1985 – For the first time in Peace Corps history, there are more women answering the call than men — a trend that continues until today.

1989 – The website Peace Corps Writers is established as a newsletter for an about Peace Corps volunteers with an interest in sharing their experiences. The site later moved to peacecorpsworldwide.org where writers provide both personal and professional resources to returning volunteers and newcomers.

October 7, 1993 – Carol Bellamy becomes the fist Returned Peace Corps Volunteer to serve as director of the agency.

1997 – South Africa receives 33 Peace Corps volunteers who will work with teachers in the post-apartheid country.

September 11, 2001 – President George W. Bush pledges to double the size of the organization within five years in response to the growing anti-US sentiment around the Middle East.

2005 – For the first time, Peace Corp volunteers served individuals in the United States. They assisted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

2009 – Peace Corp volunteers focus efforts in Rwanda, teaching HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention classes.

Dec 18, 2009 – The Peace Corp launches a digital library where current and former Peace Corp members can share stories about their experiences.

2010 – Peace Corps re-opens programs in Colombia, Indonesia, and Sierra Leone and surpasses the 200,000 mark in total Americans who have served as Peace Corps Volunteers.

Various anniversary events will take place to celebrate Peace Corps and all its accomplishments.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcmetroblogger/

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