Fall 2017: Resilience - Vol. 30 Issue 3 by National Peace Corps Association

Fall 2017 Vol. 30, No. 3 â&#x2C6;&#x2122; $4.99 worldviewmagazine.org

Published by The National Peace Corps Association

RESILIENCE

Can we save our climate? Carl Pope, Jonathan Lash and other RPCVs say we must

Also: The man who became a palm tree, Stealing Afghanistan, A Moldova barbeque, Letter from Tassa Ouirgane, RPCVs for nuclear disarmament, the Denver Connection, and Our investment in renewables

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Fall 2017 Volume 30, Number 3

WorldView Publisher: Glenn Blumhorst Chief Impact Officer: Juliana Essen Editor: David Arnold Contributing Editor: John Coyne

A magazine of news and comment about the Peace Corps world

Contributors: Glenn Blumhorst, Paula Caligiuri, Joao Canziani, Charlie Clifford, Jane Constantineau, Edward Crawford, Peter Deekle, Katrina Engstrom, Juliana Essen, Jamie Fouss, Meg Garlinghouse, Sam Goldman, David Jarmul, Dennis McAdams, Danny Moloshok, Bryn Mooser, Simon George Mpata, Eduardo Munoz, Jonathan Pearson, Amy Pressman, Alan Schnur, Maxim Shematov, Dennis Sinyakov, T. Chapman Taylor, Gaddi Vasquez WorldView Advertising Scott Oser advertising@peacecorpsconnect.org WorldView (ISSN 1047-5338) is published four times per year (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) by the National Peace Corps Association (located at 1900 L Street, NW, Suite 610, Washington, DC 20036-5002) to provide news and comment about communities and issues of the world of serving and returned Peace Corps Volunteers. WorldView © 1978 National Peace Corps Association. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C. & additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER Please send address changes to WorldView magazine National Peace Corps Association 1900 L Street NW, Suite 610 Washington, DC 20036-5002 EDITORIAL POLICY Articles published in the magazine are not intended to reflect the views of the Peace Corps, or those of the National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit educational membership organization for those whose lives are influenced by Peace Corps. The NPCA is independent of the federal agency, the Peace Corps. EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS Send all communications regarding WorldView magazine to worldview@peacecorpsconnect.org. We will consider article proposals and speculative submissions. We also encourage letters to the editor commenting on specific articles that have appeared in the magazine. All texts must be submitted as attached Word documents. For requirements in each of our departments, visit news and events on the web site of the National Peace Corps Association. If you need to contact the NPCA regarding your magazine subscription or other matters, call (202) 293-7554.

11 Once as big as Lake Erie, Lake Chad is now 5 percent of its former size. The families of millions of farmers, fishermen and nomads in Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon have displaced by climate change, terrorism and disease. Winds carry silt and sediment for thousands of kilometers into the Sahel. The image is courtesy of Jacques Descloitres, MODIS rapid response team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

RESILIENCE: OUR RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE

RPCVs Meet the Challenge & Group News Actions speak loudest and our affiliate has a megaphone by Kate Schachter

Global Resilience

Grazing Through Drought

Accepting the Challenge

Look beyond the Lower Mississippi River by Carl Pope

African cattle keepers adopt common grazing rights by Matthew Brown

States, cities, businesses and schools vow to uphold the Paris Climate Accord by Jonathan Lash

Change the Political Climate

Solomon Changes the Climate

Environmental Field Reports

Our little city had to be bold by Kitty Piercy

We inspire and fund Ghana’s own problem solvers by Averill Strasser

Kevin Lee in the Philippines says tech is not the answer, Kate Schachter remembers young Georgians who took responsibility, Mel Siegel discovers the older buildings were more comfortable, and Ellen Arnstein says Andean farmers have always known about the changing climate.

COVER: A family in Agartala, the capital of India’s northeastern state of Tripura, waited for the floodwaters of the Haora River to subside in mid-June. The city is in a humid subtropical climate that floods regularly during the monsoon season. WorldView ∙ Fall 2017 ∙ www.PeaceCorpsConnect.org | 1

THE PUBLISHER

Fall 2017 Volume 30, Number 3

The publisher of WorldView magazine is the National Peace Corps Association, a national network of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, former staff and friends. The NPCA is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational and service organization which is independent of the federal agency, the Peace Corps.

ADVISORY COUNCIL

A magazine for the greater Peace Corps community

CALLEN BLACKBURN

DEPARTMENTS

4 More than 400 attended NPCA’s Peace Corps Connect in Denver in August. PRESIDENT'S LETTER

LETTER FROM CHISINAU

BOOK

3 A Fossil-free Portfolio

33 Smokehouse Experiment

40 Stealing Kabul

NPCA invests in renewables and its community ethics by Glenn Blumhorst

RPCVs offer Moldova ribs, local beers and business transparency by David Jarmul

Afghan politics, corruption, Karzai and U.S. tax dollars by Sarah Chayes COMMENTARY

DENVER CONNECTION

4 RPCVs discover the rich

TRIBUTE

FEATURE

35 Guambiano Women Harding winner’s first lessons among war-ravaged communities by Dee Aker

8 The Man Who Became

ACHIEVEMENTS

partnerships at the NPCA’s annual conference. by Juliana Essen

43 Nuclear Risk We must speak out for peace and against the perils of nuclear proliferation by Steve Buff

Carol Bellamy, Chair, Education for All—Fast Track Initiative Ron Boring, Former Vice President, Vodafone Japan Nicholas Craw, President, Automobile Competition Committee for the U.S. Sam Farr, Former Member, U.S. House of Representatives, California John Garamendi, Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives, California Mark Gearan, President in Residence, Harvard Graduate School of Education Bruce McNamer, President & CEO at The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region Tony Hall, Former Member of U.S. House of Representatives, Ohio; Former U.S. Ambassador to Food and Agriculture Organization Sandra Jaffee, Former Executive Vice President, Citigroup William E. “Wilber” James, Managing General Partner, RockPort Capital Partners John Y. Keffer, Chairman, Atlantic Fund Administration Virginia Kirkwood, Owner/Director, Shawnee Holdings, Inc. Richard M. Krieg, President and CEO, The Horizon Foundation Kenneth Lehman, Chairman Emeritus, Winning Workplaces C. Payne Lucas, Senior Advisor, AllAfrica Foundation Dennis Lucey, Vice President, TKC Global Gordon Radley, Former President, Lucasfilms John E. Riggan, Chairman Emeritus, TCC Group Mark Schneider, Senior Advisor, Human Rights Initiative and Americas Program, CSIS Donna Shalala, President, Clinton Global Foundation Paul Slawson, Former CEO, InterPacific Co. F. Chapman Taylor, Senior Vice President and Research Director, Capital International Research Inc. Joan Timoney, Director for Advocacy and External Relations, Women’s Refugee Commission Ronald Tschetter, President, D.A. Davidson & Co. Aaron Williams, Executive Vice President, RTI International Development Group Harris Wofford, Former U.S. Senator, Pennsylvania

BOARD OF DIRECTORS J. Henry (Hank) Ambrose, Chair Tai Sunnanon, Vice Chair Patrick Fine, Treasurer Jayne Booker, Secretary Maricarmen Smith-Martinez, Affiliate Group Network Coordinator Glenn Blumhorst, ex officio Randolph (Randy) Adams Keith Beck Sandra Bunch

Bridget Davis Corey Griffin Madeleine (Maddie) Kadas Chip Levengood Katie Long Jed Meline Mary Owen Kelly Parsons Thomas Potter Susan Senecah Linda Stingl

STAFF

and other notable RPCV achievements by Peter V. Deekle

Glenn Blumhorst, President Anne Baker, Vice President Juliana Essen, Chief Impact Officer Jonathan Pearson, Advocacy Director J.M. Ascienzo, Government Relations Officer Amanda Silva, Development & Partnerships Coordinator David Fields, Analyst & Special Project Coordinator Kevin Blossfeld, Finance and Administrative Assistant Elizabeth (Ella) Dowell, Community Technology Systems Coordinator Rachel Mannino, Director of Development

SHORTS

LETTER FROM MOROCCO

CONSULTANTS

10 Shades of Vietnam, Bill

38 Return to Tassa Oiurgane

David Arnold, Editor Lollie Commodore, Finance

Josephson remembers Jack Hood Vaughn and Emily Hoppes on keeping girls in school

A survival plan for orchards in the High Atlas by Mark Apel

a Palm Tree After 42 years, Mr. Paul comes to life again in Boise, Idaho by Ezzat Goushegir

Advertiser Index

36 Lynn Foden Joins Thrive

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NPCA FELLOWS Elizabeth Genter, Cooper Roberts

INTERNS Olive Martin

VOLUNTEERS Peter Deekle, Harriet Lipowitz, Susan Neyer, Angene Wilson

LETTER FROM THE NPCA PRESIDENT

A FOSSIL-FREE PORTFOLIO

NPCA invests in renewables and its community ethics By Glenn Blumhorst

ntil very recently, NPCA had no means of ensuring its own longterm financial sustainability. For 35 years, we relied on the dues paid by members each year and on sporadic short-term grants earmarked for specific projects. The organization always managed to keep the lights on and run key programs like advocating for the Peace Corps and publishing WorldView magazine, and we did a good job of keeping our members connected. But without the ability to make accurate financial forecasts, our aspirations—for a bigger, better Peace Corps, a thriving community, and amplified development impact—languished in the planning stage. In the last 12 months, however, things changed in our capacity to plan for the future. The Board of Directors Finance Committee, and in particular the newly formed Investment Sub-committee, paved the way for one established (but young) and one new endowment fund. The Global Citizen Program restricts endowments to support one of NPCA’s annual awards and the unrestricted endowments of the Legacy of Peace sustain core initiatives over the long term in response to the needs of our global community. Once these funds were secured, the Finance Committee didn’t just invest it and forget it. As stewards of NPCA’s financial health, they conducted careful due diligence to ensure that investments had growth potential but were still conservative enough to safeguard NPCA’s future. The Legacy of Peace endowment has been particularly successful, growing from $10,000 to $50,000 in its first

year. This is a testament to not only our Finance Committee’s acumen but our community’s deep commitment to Peace Corps ideals. Our long-term goal of $10 million will produce $500,000 annually for NPCA to use on community-driven initiatives. Gifts to the Legacy of Peace fuel this growth. Shortly after these investment funds were established, the affiliate group RPCVs for Environmental Action wrote a letter to NPCA leadership requesting that NPCA divest from fossil fuels. Care for the environment, they argued, is a Peace Corps value, and one way we show our values is through our investments. Their arguments, summarized by a founding board member of the affiliate, Kate Schachter, were three-fold: Throughout the world, more and more organizations, companies, and governments are going fossil free in their investment strategies. From Ireland to the city of New York, from college campuses to art galleries and museums, the movement is on to divest and reinvest in renewable energy solutions. We will be in good company for this change. As members of the Peace Corps community, we have seen first-hand how marginalized people are affected most by the negative impacts of the fossil fuel industry. They bear the largest burden of environmental degradation and pollution and suffer most from the secondary effects of poor health and forced migration. We continue to care about these people long after we leave their country. Renewables give power to the people, literally and figuratively. Renewables require a change in thinking about the power delivery system already in place,

much of it locally delivered (think rooftop solar). Meanwhile, more fund managers are investing in renewable energy as it becomes more profitable than fossil fuel energy. We want to be part of the solution, too. This timely request made it clear to NPCA’s Board that the Peace Corps community expected not only prudent investments, but ethical ones. But why stop with fossil fuels? After carefully weighing the pros and cons, NPCA’s Finance Committee proposed a more comprehensive policy of ethical investments that meet environmental, social, and governance criteria. And at its March 2017 meeting, the NPCA board voted unanimously to put our money where our ideals are. Our new investment policy states that the use of these three ethical criteria is intended to align NPCA investments in companies whose business is consistent with the values and standards of the Peace Corps community. In accordance with the application of these criteria, NPCA will exclude investments with companies whose principal business is; the exploitation, manufacture or sale of fossil fuel products, the manufacture or sale of tobacco products, and private prisons and judicial detention centers. NPCA will bring the current investment portfolio into compliance with this policy as soon as possible and no later than one year from the establishment of this policy (i.e., by March 31, 2018). This is a success story of communityled change. This change is possible thanks to all of your investments, from your Legacy of Peace bequests to your letters and emails that help us chart a better course. The future of our Peace Corps ideals grows ever stronger, thanks to you. With great respect, Glenn Blumhorst The author is NPCA’s president and chief executive officer. He served in Guatemala from 1988 to 1991. He welcomes your comments at president@peacecorpsconnect.org.

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PEACE CORPS CONNECT

PARTNERING FOR PROGRESS Highlights from Peace Corps Connect 2017 By Juliana Essen

Strategic Peace Corps Growth When Blumhorst asked about the proposed cuts to the Peace Corps budget, Crowley focused on the positive. She said Peace Corps maintains tremendous bipartisan support, and while we’re facing a reduction she is confident that Peace Corps will maintain current numbers of volunteers, and even make incremental increases. “We won’t make 10,000 volunteers by 2018, but we can grow strategically,” Crowley said. When Blumhorst asked how she remains optimistic about the future, Crowley opened her arms to the audience: “Look at all these people here! People still want to serve.” She believes Peace Corps remains the gold standard of international volunteerism, and their continued professionalization of service ensures that volunteers return home with skills that make them highly competitive in the global marketplace. Keynote Speaker Panel On Saturday, three RPCVs gave

keynote addresses on Living a Life of Service – Peace Corps DNA. They explored how as a nation we make opportunities available to Americans and where there are opportunities and challenges for expansion. With her diplomatic service in Cuba, Ethiopia, Mail, and Madagascar in the State Department, Ambassador Vicki Huddleston (Peru 64-66) said this generation now faces the greatest perils, which have exponentially increased the need for service. Ken Goodson (Bolivia 97-00) served as Southwest Regional Director for AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and offered the conference a practical approach to expanding service, including accessibility and impact reporting. As president of Mestiza Leadership International, Juana Bordas (Chile 64-66) urged the audience to hear the call for change. She shared inspiring stories from her work in servant leadership and organizational change, pointing to President Kennedy’s lifelong commitment to empowering humankind. CEDAR SPRING WOLF

t is impossible to capture the energy of the hundreds of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, staff, family, and friends who gathered in Denver on August 4-6 to connect and create change at Peace Corps Connect. It is possible, however, to demonstrate the range of ideas and the visionary scope of the keynote speakers talking about a life of service, the first annual social enterprise competition and the inspiring community awards we shared. One of the highlights of those three days was the highly anticipated fireside chat between NPCA’s chief executive officer, Glenn Blumhorst, and Sheila Crowley, the acting director of Peace Corps. Crowley (Ukraine 01- 03) previously served as acting associate director for volunteer recruitment and selection and was country director in Romania and Indonesia between 2010 and 2015. Blumhorst’s fireside chat is a major event at NPCA’s annual Peace Corps Connect conferences.

Sheila Crowley, acting director of the Peace Corps, told the NPCA’s chief executive, Glenn Blumhorst, she is optimistic about strategies to deal with possible Congressional funding cuts for 2018. Crowley was appointed in January.

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The panel was moderated by Willard D. “Wick” Rowland, PhD (Jamaica 66-69). Breakout Sessions The breakout sessions on Saturday and Sunday were as diverse and actionoriented as the Peace Corps community itself. The topics covered global education, storytelling, political campaigns, immigration and refugees, Peace Corps advocacy, literacy programs, Peace Corps Response, and other opportunities for service. The presenters – fellow RPCVs, Peace Corps staff, and partners – shared their practical experience and expertise, including how to partner with community organizations like Rotary or refugee resettlement agencies, and offered toolkits for organizing awareness and fundraising events, effectively delivering messages to government representatives, and more. The participants had just as much to share as the presenters, resulting

in richly collaborative and solutionfocused discussions. Even after the sessions ended, groups lingered to dig more deeply into the issues and exchange promises to follow up and stay in touch. Social Enterprise Pitch The Peace Corps community launched a social enterprise pitch competition at this year’s Peace Corps Connect, hosted by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Colorado. Each of six finalists gave a fiveminute pitch in the hopes of winning the Audience’s Choice Award or the Judge’s Choice Award, each totaling $3,300. The Audience Choice Award went to Bokk Baby, an e-commerce social enterprise founded by Margaret Davidson and Danny White, who both served in Senegal from 2012 to 2014. Bokk Baby is launching this year and retails sustainably made baby apparel, blankets, and signature gift boxes and sends gently used

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items to new mothers in rural Senegal through local community health workers. The judges’ pick was Friends of ENCA farms, led by Sherry Manning (Philippines 06-08) and Carrie Evans (Philippines 85-88). Friends of ENCA Farm has launched a grassroots farmer-led seedsaving movement in the Philippines and is now ready to help participating farmers develop a farmer-owned and operated organic seed company. This project will ensure that greater numbers of smallholder farmers have access to locally produced, regionally adapted organic seeds and will provide increased economic development for the participating farmers. Community Awards This year’s award presentations served as a vivid reminder of how impactful our community is. The winner of NPCA’s 2017 Harris Wofford Global Citizen

Award, given annually to an outstanding global leader whose life was influenced by the Peace Corps, was Siotame Drew Havea of Tonga for his work supporting Tongan youth, democracy, and civil society. The Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service was awarded to Kelly Callahan (Cote d’Ivoire 96-98) in recognition of her tireless efforts over 20 years to eradicate Guinea worm disease and blinding trachoma, two diseases considered “neglected tropical diseases” that affect the poorest of the poor. The 2017 Loret Miller Ruppe Award for Outstanding Community Service went to First Coast RPCVs of Jacksonville, Florida. This affiliate group shines especially in influencing their elected government officials. Another outstanding Peace Corps community advocate is recognized annually with the Advocate of the Year

Award. This year’s awardee was Suzanne Smith, who serves as both the president of RPCVs of Colorado as well as their advocacy coordinator. Other awards that recognize the accomplishments of Peace Corps community members include the Deborah Harding Women of Achievement Award given by NPCA’s affiliate group, Women of Peace Corps Legacy, to Dr. Dee Aker (Colombia 63-65), a psychological anthropologist and conflict resolution professional with over 40 years of experience in international peace-building and conflict transformation. Other awards and cash prizes were announced by the Peace Corps Fund, a 14-year-old non-profit that honors the writing of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and former staff whose writing promotes the federal agency’s Third Goal. See the peacecorpsworldwide. org website for details of these awards.

Upper left: Juana Bordas, Vickie Huddleston, and Ken Goodson discuss ways RPCVs can expand opportunities for a life of service during a panel moderated by Willard Rowland. Right, top to bottom: Danny White and Margaret Davidson received an audience vote for their Bokk Bay e-commerce social enterprise in Senegal; and RPCVs discussed a variety of action-oriented opportunities for public service in breakout sessions. Credit Cedar Spring Wolf

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THE MAN WHO BECAME A PALM TREE After 42 years, Mr. Paul comes to life again in Boise, Idaho By Ezzat Goushegir

was 12 when my brother invited Mr. Paul to our house in Dezful, Iran. It was around the end of October when I then met the first American person in my life. It was late afternoon and the weather was warm. My older sister greeted him in our guest room, where most of our Persian carpets were piled up on top of a big table in the corner of the room and the black and white woolen sofa made the air much warmer. Tall and blonde with sparkling blue eyes and a very special tender smile, Mr. Paul had his suit on. We sensed he must feel warm. He looked at the carpets with a sense of curiosity and asked my sister, Fakhri, if they were real Persian rugs. Yes, she said. He was calm and puzzled for a moment. I thought he must be wondering why are these precious rugs piled up on a table and not being spread out on the floor in each room? My brothers arranged summer chairs in the center of the yard under the palm tree, a 100-year old palm tree and the citrus trees, which we had showered earlier with sprinkles of water to cool down the air. In the kitchen my brothers and sisters and I competed with each other to make our best lemonade with fresh limes, sugar and cube ice. My mother poured it in the most elegant glass, washed summer fruits, arranged them in a tray and we brought them excitedly to the yard to serve. We circled around Mr. Paul and listened to his pronunciation of our names. It was enormously charming to listen to his pronunciation of my sister’s name, Fakhri, since he naturally could not pronounce “kh.” It was 1964 and Paul Levering, a Peace

Corps volunteer, was teaching English to high school students and worked as an athletics instructor in Dezful. It is the city of my birth, known for its ancient history and old bridge. We sometimes saw Mr. Paul riding in the streets of Dezful, chased by little boys singing songs teasingly and making playful gestures. I felt so much for him and wondered, “What has motivated an American young man to leave his comfortable life in America, coming to

this hot, dusty city.... alone?” I thought about his diet, food differences, bathing, bed, the weather and his bike on the grubby, uneven streets that were filled with bare feet children, stray dogs, cats, local black buffaloes, chickens and roosters. Paul Levering was a modern Pied Piper. For many years, I didn’t see him and didn’t think about him, although we talked about him here and there. I dreamed of him as a foreign man from a foreign land. I fictionalized him as a planted palm tree in our house wearing a spotless suit and when the wind blew it would dishevel his golden blonde locks, and birds would throw sweet fruits down. Recovering memories I was riding to work on the L train in Chicago one early morning in 2006 when I heard two young men sitting on the

FINDING MR. PAUL Finding Paul Levering took more than five years, a lot of patience and Levering’s decision to join an NPCA affiliate, the Peace Corps Iran Association. The hunt began in earnest when Idaho Public Television producer Marcia Franklin attended a reunion of Iran Peace Corps members in 2011 in Portland, Oregon. She was there to screen “From Idaho to Iran,” her 2003 documentary about Iran’s environmental movement. An Idaho friend of Franklin, Azam Houle, was looking for “Mr. Paul,” a volunteer she met in her family’s courtyard in Dezful in the 1960s. At the Portland gathering, Franklin met Ed Lathrope who served in Dezful after Paul Levering. Lathrope volunteered to look for Levering but Doug Schermer, who manages the affiliate’s database, said he wasn’t on their list. The affiliate’s membership continued to grow, however, and in 2014 Jackie Spurlock discovered that Levering had just joined. Schermer called Levering and gave him Azam’s information.

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“I was joyfully surprised,” says Levering. In 2015 Levering flew from Tucson, Arizona to Boise, Idaho, to meet Azam and her sister, Ezzat Goushegir, who lives in Chicago. Franklin was also there to document the reunion, which has become a friendship. “Although everything on the surface was contemporary American, old déjà vu feelings from Dezfuli gatherings flooded my consciousness,” says Levering. Ezzat has visited Levering in Tucson and he has visited her in Chicago. Ezzat, a playwright, recorded his backpacking adventures since Iran. “She was interested in the adventures of my lifelong obsession,” says Levering of his trips to more than 100 countries. Goushegir’s lengthy Farsi account of their reunion and Paul’s travels has been published and has led to more Dezfulis contacting him. In 2016, Levering made his first trip back to Iran, although he wasn’t able to visit Dezful.

other side of the car talk about how much fun it would be to go to war in the Middle East and kill people. I froze on the spot. “Is this really true what I am hearing?” I thought. Suddenly, I was filled with the memory of Mr. Paul, a man with a kind smile, calm face and humble gestures. A man the people of Dezful loved and respected dearly. The statement of those young men startled me. How could killing be fun? I thought about writing a novella about the first encounter between two people from different nationalities and how they would see each other through certain historical situations. I wanted to find Mr. Paul and talk to him after over 50 years. I wanted to search for answers to many challenging, complex questions and create a world,like many of Marguerite Duras’ novellas based on understanding and tenderness. I started my research on him, collecting information, memories from my family, friends, looking for any trace or evidence of him on Internet. My sister Azam in Boise continued the research. Almost 10 years later, Azam and I were waiting for Mr. Paul at the Boise airport. When he finally came through the doors, he was still as tall, quiet and thoughtful as our palm trees. And he still had those same blue eyes and tender smile. I knew we could have hours of discussions about literature, arts, politics, anthropology, psychology, cultures, and various aspects of human life. We indeed had endless talks...days after days...about everything. He could not remember any of us, nor our palm trees, lemonade and fresh summer fruits. But something deep, substantial and profound had begun to develop in all of us, in him, in our family and friends, during those days in my sister’s house. Something essential but invisible, something beyond everyday life.

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Ezzat Goushegir is an author and playwright whose writing in English and Farsi has been published and produced in Chicago, New York and London and in Iran and other countries. She teaches at DePaul University.

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SHORTS

Other girls earn the cash to purchase disposable pads by trading sex, increasing their vulnerability to premature sexual Reading Kill the Gringos debut, early pregnancy, and HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. The School Period The result is that during their periods, many girls stay home, do poorly in their Blatchford, et al. is scathing about the SHADES OF VIETNAM classes, drop out of school and prolong a Peace Corps regional director, Paul Bell, I’ve read most of Kill the Gringo: The Life of cycle of poverty. who never told Murray of his rights Jack Hood Vaughn, the former Peace Corps The women working at Huru and never showed Murray his proposed director’s posthumous autobiography International make Huru Kits that termination statement. At Peace Corps from which you excerpted a portion in contain affordable, washable sanitary headquarters Murray “was not permitted the Summer issue. I first met Jack when pads, and other essential menstrual the opportunity to prepare his own I was deputy general counsel travelling in health resources. Donors subsidize the statement.” The court’s careful statement 1961 with Sargent Shriver and the head cost of each $35 kit. In Swahili, Huru of the facts is damning of Peace Corps of the Peace Corps’s Africa programs, means “free” and Huru Kits give girls the which had no evidence that Murray did George E. Carter, Jr., to Guinée to meet freedom to stay in school and fully attend its head, Sékou Touré. We overnighted anything but sign letters to newspapers. to their hygiene needs while they are in Dakar and spent the evening with The court found, “The record stands in menstruating. In the last nine years, Huru Jack who was mission director for the total testament to the distinguished, has provided 140,000 girls and young International Cooperation Administration diplomatic, gentle and wholly professional women with discounted Huru Kits and and its successor agency, the Agency for quality of Murray’s service to the people sexual and reproductive health education International Development. of Concepcion – he was to them the very in life skills workshops throughout Kenya, I disagreed with many actions taken antithesis of the ‘ugly American.’ Tanzania, and Uganda. during Jack’s tenure and could cite many More than 100 Peace Corps many errors in his book. However, my Bill Josephson served as counsel for five years Volunteers and 120 Tanzanian close friend, Warren Wiggins, the Peace and has conducted a private legal practice counterparts have been trained by Huru Corps associate director for programs in New York since 1966. Josephson and to provide girls in their own communities and later Peace Corps deputy director, Warren Wiggins wrote The Towering Task, with the kits and with education on had served with Jack in Bolivia and then the ambitious 1961 treatise that shaped sexual and reproductive health, menstrual at the Washington offices of ICA and the goals of the agency’s founding director, health, and life skills. In Tanzania, Warren had long wanted Jack to head the Sargent Shriver. they’ve distributed kits and education Peace Corps’ Latin American programs. to more than 30,000 young women and In his book Jack reports that on the THE SCHOOL PERIOD given approximately 10,000 young men day of his swearing-in as Peace Corps Dozens of Kenyan women sit at tables in reproductive health education. director in 1966 and at later times, the Nairobi slum called Mukuru, deftly School attendance has increased, President Johnson asked him about cutting, sewing, and grades are up, and the sending volunteers to Vietnam. Jack sorting blue and purple program appears to be apparently was unaware that this subject swathes of specially working. “Huru has been a had been considered for at least a year designed, locally-produced wonderful vehicle for PCVs and that some former volunteers were fabrics that become and their counterparts working in Vietnam for AID and its reusable sanitary pads to deliver important contractors. that last up to three years. messages about sexual and Jack describes an anti-Vietnam war The women are making a reproductive health and volunteer protestor as Charles Murray, tailor’s living at the Huru HIV and to build girls’ life “I felt he had made antiwar activism Innovation Centre and skills,” says Endesh Mollel, his profession…. We asked him back enabling hundreds of Peace Corps Tanzania’s to Washington, and I told him his tour thousands of schoolgirls associate director for was over.” Actually, the volunteer was in East Africa to stay in health. “They create safe school. Stephen Bruce Murray and as Jack spaces and opportunities For many years, school Mukuru factory workers. admits, Murray successfully sued the for girls to hear a message girls who are menstruating Peace Corps for wrongful discharge and rarely spoken.” For more have resorted to using dirty, dangerous the Selective Service System for wrongful information, visit huruinternational.org. substitutes for sanitary protection such as reclassification to I-A from II-A mattress filling, cow dung, pieces of cloth, The 20-page federal court opinion Emily Hoppes, Tanzania, 2012-2015. and discarded pads they find in the trash. in Stephen Bruce Murray v. Joseph

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GROUP NEWS

MEET THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE Actions speak loudest and our affiliate has a megaphone By Kate Schachter

ANDRIA MARIE SURLES

uring your Peace Corps service, did you ever hold a used plastic bag in your hand and pitch it into a waste pile because there was nothing else to do with it? What have you done about that since you came home? As Peace Corps Volunteers we serve in nations that are the most vulnerable to climate change, countries that contribute the least to the increase in temperature and have almost no power to overcome the global threat. We come home to the second-largest contributor to greenhouse gases and a nation that could be a leader for change. We can return the generosity of our host countries by organizing to proactively change local American behaviors to reduce our collective carbon footprint and build a voice to address Congress and the current White House administration that is wiping the term “climate change” from its websites. Many of us came to Peace Corps with a professional, volunteer or activist

interest in the environment. And if we weren’t sure beforehand, the problems we saw in our host countries reinforced our commitment to change. For example, I’ve been paying attention to climate change and energy use since the first oil crisis in the 1970s. My story and those of other RPCV activists on climate troubles are included in this issue of WorldView. There’s Mel Siegel who is a professor of physics and robotics who was thinking about technology for sustainable development in Achimoto, Ghana before the idea had that name. And there’s Kevin Lee, an engineer when he went to the Philippines. “As RPCVs we have the privilege to speak with authority. The RPCVs for Environmental Action is one of the channels where we can participate in the governance process that will be the prime mover to reduce human impact on global temperatures.” Lee is the founder of an NGO confronting the catastrophic weather challenges in Luzon now and received an Ashoka fellowship to advance his organization’s efforts.

RPCVs for Environmental Action (left to right) Carolyn Smalkowski in sunglasses, Mary Flanagan with curly red hair and Peace Corps recruiter Denis Illige-Saucier in the RPCVs of Washington, DC tee-shirt joined the Peoples Climate March on Earth Day, April 29.

Building Leadership RPCVs first joined forces for their post-service environmental mission in 1991 with an NPCA affiliate called RPCVs for Environmental and Sustainable Development and for 15 years they built a record of

achievement in biodiversity, advocacy, education and energy. As the debate about climate change emerged in more recent years, their leader, Katy Hansen, and NPCA advocacy director Jonathan Pearson helped us establish RPCVs for Environmental Action. Since the launch of RPCVs for Environmental Action two years ago at the NPCA’s Peace Corps Connect-Berkeley we’ve identified a leadership team and a set of action items. Up to a dozen meet on monthly conference calls to implement those strategies to rebuild the greater Peace Corps community’s promise to remain part of the global environmental solution. The challenges of climate change and environmental issues are not limited to any one country. Kevin reports that in the Philippines the current administration threatened to pull out of the Paris agreement, but public pressure prevented that action. Only good governance on a world stage will manage climate change and we’re seeing a need for action. Our president pulled out of the accord, but many U.S. state and municipal governments have vowed to uphold the standards set by the Paris Climate Accord. Let’s get a move on So let’s move to how #RPCVsTakeAction. In the last two years we have started a Facebook action group with almost 600 members, built a listserv and newsletter, shared petitions and “call your Legislator” advocacy action items on clean air and clean water, and have become an NPCA affiliate. We’ve built a presence at NPCA’s Connect conferences in Washington, D.C. and Denver, supported an NPCA commitment to Go Fossil Free in their investment policy, and rallied RPCVs to walk at last summer’s Peoples Climate March on Washington. We know you are the right person to join us as we build our network and reach out beyond the Peace Corps community with our megaphone to act on climate change. Yes, you can and should also participate in environmental action groups like 350.org, Citizens Climate

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Kate Schachter was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Brekumanso, Ghana from 2004 to 2007, and a Response Volunteer in Kutaisi, Georgia from 2016 to 2017. She is a co-founder of the RPCVs for Environmental Action and she knows that #RPCVsChangeTheWorld.

MORE GROUP NEWS

Our network grew to 170 affiliates when the board of directors of the NPCA approved the applications of RPCVs to create XXX more groups. The new groups are XXXXXXXXXX. Here are examples of what some of our more established affiliate groups are doing.

HEALTH JUSTICE Leaders and supporters of the affiliate Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteers were among a group of 30 advocates building support for Peace Corps health reforms in 60 meetings with congressional offices in June. This Capitol Hill Day was a major component of NPCA’s third annual Health Justice Awareness Day. The health justice group leaders assisted in an orientation session, educating and explaining key provisions of House legislation, the Sam Farr Peace Corps Enhancement Act, which is H.R. 2259.

Since 1993, this group has donated more than $170,000 to support development projects in Turkey.

ADULT ENGLISH The first winner of the RPCVs of Gulf Coast Florida’s new Celebration of Service award is the Project Light Adult English Learning Center. The center provides English classes daytime class instruction to approximately 80 students between 18 to 90 years of age. The $800 donation was presented at a luncheon.

MAINE IN SUMMER If you invite NPCA President Glenn Blumhorst to attend your affiliate group event, there’s a good chance he will be there. Blumhorst gave 25 members of the Maine RPCVs at their annual summer picnic news about the Peace Corps Connect conference and NPCA’s coordination of national advocacy efforts by hundreds of members.

AFFILIATE LEADERS MEET IN DENVER

AUDIOBOOKS FOR ARMENIA

ARIZONA SCHOOL REFORM

It was standing room only when 30 affiliate group leaders and another 60 interested RPCVs gathered for the Affiliate Group Network Annual Meeting the NPCA’s three-day Peace Corps Connect gathering in Denver. “We are thrilled to report that attendance was much higher than anticipated”, said Maricarmen SmithMartinez, the affiliate leadership group’s representative to the NPCA board of directors. “In my four years conducting this meeting, I have never had so many group leaders approach to congratulate NPCA on such a successful meeting.” Highlights of the half-day forum included an address by Ashley Bell, the newly appointed Peace Corps associate director for external affairs Ashley Bell and an overview of NPCA’s web-based Community Builder Platform, new software designed to further integrate and connect groups in on unified location. Forum participants attended breakout sessions on initiatives that include NPCA’s community fund and advocacy initiatives, Peace Corps programs to share service through storytelling, and plans for a proposed Museum of the Peace Corps experience.

Friends of Armenia donated funds to the Agate Center for Women with Special Needs through Thong Do, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gyumri in northern Armenia, to finance the production of two audiobooks and their distribution to the visually impaired. Since 2009, Friends of Armenia has donated more than $12,000 to more than 20 community projects in their country of service.

Activities of the RPCVs of Phoenix have grown, according to a recent issue of their newsletter. The affiliate has joined a state movement to reform Arizona schools, sponsored a Peace Corps recruitment booth at the National Latino Family Expo and highlighted the recent Farmer-to-Farmer assignment of Dave Wager to an agricultural project in Liberia that was sponsored by ACDI/VOCA.

YOUTH PROJECTS IN TURKEY Last year members of Arkadaslar, Peter V. Deekle is a regular contributor to the NPCA affiliate of those who served WorldView and served in Iran from 1968 to in Peace Corps Turkey, donated more 1970. than $10,000 to projects. Seven projects included several supporting youth: four-year post-secondary scholarships to eight students in Turkey, a school that works with children facing mental and physical challenges, and a memorial scholarship honoring C. Erik Olson--a Turkey I PCV--to support research of childhood epilepsy at the Pediatric Leaders of affiliate groups discussed growth challenges at NPCA's Peace Corps Connect in Denver. Neurological Laboratory.

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JULIANA ESSEN/NPCA

Lobby, Elders Climate Action, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and others. Join us, and let’s stay ahead of the issues we have fought for since the 1970s in clean air and water and for improvements in energy technology. Raise your voice locally, or bring it to DC and let your representatives know about your environmental priorities. We’re here to support your efforts and amp it up. Contact us at rpcv4environmentalaction@ gmail.com and our Facebook page at RPCVsForEnvironmentalAction/

CREDIT: DANIEL MUNOZ/REUTERS

RESILIENCY

hen four months ago our federal government withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, many U.S. cities and states that have for several years been actively engaged in reducing this nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s carbon footprint stepped up to honor our commitment to reduce the destructive human impacts of climate change. Whether one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest contributors to a warming planet has the collective power to become part of the global solution remains to be seen. But as Peace Corps Volunteers we have lived and worked in the communities that many scientists, university presidents, businessmen and world leaders believe are the innocent victims of the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the major economies of the world. Americans whose life stories include two or three years serving in remote villages or the capitals of emerging economies as Peace Corps Volunteers are very much a part of the movement to save the diverse environments of our world. On the next pages, we offer the thinking of a handful of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who continue to play major roles in showing the way forward on a global scale. Jonathan Lash who led the World Resources Institute for 18 years and Carl Pope who led the Sierra Club for 18 years as

well. After serving three terms as mayor of Eugene, Oregon, Kitty Piercy writes about how she cajolled her university town in the forests of the Northwest to join the coalition of municipal and state governments to slow climate change. We also offer you narratives about small, discreet projects in countries where the impact of desertification and flooding is an immediate threat to the survival of small communities. Matt Brown of the Nature Conservancy writes about cattle keepers in Tanzania who can graze their herds in national parks during drought. Averill Strasser, whose Water Charity partners with NPCA on hundreds of water and sanitation projects, shows how a network of Peace Corps support can foster reforestation in Ghana. Lee of a Single Drop of Safe Water, Inc. says local governments are the problem and the solution in the Philippines. Kevin Lee, Kate Schachter and a host of others who have recently formed the RPCVs for Environmental Action show the diversity of direct engagement we can offer around the world and in advocacy in our hometowns and in Washington, D.C. They were Peace Corps Volunteers in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, India, and The Philippines. In some important ways, they still are. The Editors

On Guadalcanal, one of dozens of the Solomon islands threatened with rising Pacific Ocean sea levels, a child carries a baby on a garbagestrewn beach.

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CLIMATE

GLOBAL RESILIENCE Look beyond the Lower Mississippi River By Carl Pope

ll over the world, we will need greater resilience at all scales—local, regional, and global—to cope with changes in the climate that are already

occurring. Careful urban planning and design can help cities and towns withstand increasingly unpredictable and changeable weather at the small scale. But to protect large landscapes, we need to rely primarily upon natural mechanisms. Increasing resilience at the regional level begins with a search for the natural defenses that historically provided protection. We must invest in strengthening Carl Pope those natural processes, like the Mississippi River’s silt conveyor belt that created south Louisiana, instead of relying primarily on complex and hard-edged engineering projects to ensure our safety and security. The British learned this the hard way a long time ago, when, as the emerging colonial power in India, they decided that the port city of Calcutta was inconveniently distant from the sea, far up the winding and mangrove-choked Hooghly River. Believing that man could conquer nature, these Victorians decided they would move Calcutta from its inland location behind the mangrove islands of the Sundarbans, India’s equivalent to Louisiana’s wetlands. A few voices protested that Port Canning, the new city built fronting the sea, would be vulnerable to a typhoon. But the British Raj, in the full flush of its hubris, went ahead anyway and copied Calcutta road for road on the edge of the Bay of Bengal. Five years later, the typhoon came. Port Canning vanished. And the Raj scuttled back behind the mangroves to Calcutta’s historic location where the city remains today. Preparing for change However, no matter how severe

the impact of climate change will be on southern Louisiana, South Florida, and California, Americans will not be in danger of starving as a result. That is not true in much of the world. As we have seen, future crop productivity is at risk from climate change. So how do we get agriculture in developing countries, in particular, agriculture that supports small subsistence farmers, or small holders, ready for climate change? Here again, as in other sectors, providing these farmers with knowledge, innovation, and modest sums of capital is often the key. Kheyti, a start-up in southern India, sells 2,500-square-foot greenhouses for $280, with a 10 percent down payment. The greenhouses control temperature, humidity, and pests; enable farmers to grow crops with 80–90 percent less water; and increase the value of the crops grown on a small plot tenfold. In Southeast Asia, a major drought recently afflicted hundreds of thousands of households and climate projections indicate that the region is likely to be one of the most heavily affected by weather patterns. The combination of climate change and the increased upstream construction of dams on the Mekong River by China has called the stability of the Mekong Delta into question. The likely solutions begin with deployment of traditional approaches to agricultural productivity and the reliance on networks of check dams and water catchments to store rainfall. But new varieties of rice better able to withstand variable weather patterns and salt water intrusion are also going to be essential, an area where global investment has fallen in the past three decades. Africa is ground zero for the challenges of getting ready to live with a new and unstable climate. Here, too, El Niño hit farmers hard in 2015, particularly in East Africa. But the long-term trends are truly

worrisome. Nations are ranked by how hard climate change will hit them. New Zealand is the luckiest at Number 1. The United States is No. 11. African countries, however, draw the short straw. South Africa, the continent’s least vulnerable, is still almost halfway down at No. 84; Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda are at No. 147, No. 154, and No. 160 out of 180 nations ranked. Insuring Africa Africa’s climate is already marginal for agriculture and it shows. East Africa has higher rates of hunger than any other region. One-third of the population is malnourished. Crop yields are 10 percent of those in the West and Africa is the only region where food production per capita is already falling. The dry land regions of Africa’s Sahel, the dry belt south of the Sahara, will face significant declines in available water even as higher temperatures mean that crops will require more water to reach maturity. (Most of the water a plant uses is to air-condition itself against heat.) African crop yields could fall by 20 percent for rice, wheat, and corn; drought could slash the growing season in dry regions by 40 percent. Africa’s recurrent droughts and crop

When nations are ranked by how hard climate change will hit them— with New Zealand the luckiest at Number 1 and the United States at No. 11—African countries draw the short straw.

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failures are rarely surprises. Weather reporting and satellite data normally signal weeks or even months in advance that crops are at risk of failing. If food relief arrives immediately, most of the damage can be avoided. But if it is even six weeks late, families are forced to kill livestock, pull girls out of school, and sell next year’s seed corn. International relief efforts are almost never timely.

small holders in the tropics, to thrive in a less stable, and in many cases more challenging, climate. We need, in fact, a global Embrapa. Embrapa is the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation that established Brazil as the first tropical agricultural superpower. Like the institutions that created the two previous scientific agricultural revolutions—the 1940s hybrid

If we’re going to feed a world of seven, eight, even nine billion people in a rapidly changing climate, we are going to do it with approaches like Embrapa’s, not with privatized, patent-protected, proprietary approaches such as genetic engineering in the United States. To remedy this shortcoming, African nations created, by treaty, the African Risk Capacity program, a risk insurance pool that includes 32 nations and focuses on drought. ARC’s objective “is to capitalize on the natural diversification of weather risk across Africa, allowing countries to manage their risk as a group in a financially efficient manner in order to respond to probable but uncertain risks.” The European Union provided seed capital, and each participating African nation then chose the level of risk protection it desired and provided the appropriate premium. The scheme is designed to be commercially sustainable, using standard commercial techniques like insurance and investment of premium. It’s an important lesson in how innovative financial mechanisms can help the world prepare for unstable climate. But Africa cannot self-insure against the full force of the climate challenges it faces and will face. Based on the pledges contained in the 2016 Paris Accord for Climate Change, the continent faces a $488 billion shortfall over the next 15 years to pay for the costs of needed resiliency. Open source farming In the last 20 years, we have seen a dismaying drop in global investment in public sector agricultural research, the kind that produced the first Green Revolution. We need a new agricultural revolution, one designed to enable farmers, particularly

corn revolution in the United States and the 1970s Green Revolution around the world—Embrapa is open source, publicly accessible and publicly funded. It tested and disseminated a broad system of agricultural interventions suited for tropical conditions. In the 10 years after its launch, agricultural production rose by 365 percent without genetically engineered private patents and without destroying rain forest for new cropland. However, rain forest continued to be destroyed for other reasons and deforestation contributed little to the agricultural miracle. What did Embrapa do? First, it focused on improving soils, discovering that Brazil’s cerrado (savanna) soils needed lots of limestone to counter their acidity. Then, using conventional cross-breeding, Embrapa created an enormously prolific variety of tropical grass, which greatly expanded Brazil’s ability to grow grass-fed beef, again without destroying rain forest. Finally, again using conventional breeding, Embrapa took the classic temperate climate crop soybeans and made it suitable for the tropics. It pioneered no-till agriculture and created an integrated farming system using crops, livestock, and trees. Public sector research like Embrapa’s freely disseminates commonly shared agricultural systems for seeds, fertilizers, livestock, techniques. These are then deployed by markets but created by governments. If we’re going to feed a world

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of seven, eight, even nine billion people in a rapidly changing climate, we are going to do it with approaches like Embrapa’s, not with privatized, patent-protected, proprietary approaches such as genetic engineering in the United States. They are simply too narrow for the challenge. Small holders are not lucrative customers. But developing new technology is not the whole solution to agricultural resilience; small holders need to be able to access it. Here innovation is being pioneered by a variety of institutions. One new entrant is the Climate-Smart Lending Platform being sponsored by the Global Innovation Lab that Bloomberg Philanthropies supports with grants. The Lending Platform will work with farmers and financial institutions to develop a variety of standardized loan products for farmers who agree to adopt new “climate-smart” agricultural practices. Modeling suggests that this combination of climate-smart practices, better measuring, and access to affordable, de-risked capital can enable farmers to increase their profits two- to four-fold. Today our enormously enhanced ability to measure and understand natural dynamics, combined with a newly humbled awareness that, in fact, we are not able to tame even a single hurricane adequately to fully protect New York City or New Orleans, gives hope for a new approach to climate change. What is most exciting is that the approaches that pay off in the near term such asa higher quality of life in Manhattan, more abundant fish catches in the Philippines, cooler Aprils in New Delhi, better water quality in Palm Beach, and lower insurance premiums in New Orleans, also make each of these communities more stable in the face of a disrupted 21-century climate and help assure their security. This excerpt from the new book, Climate of Hope; How Cities and Businesses Can Save the Planet, was written by Carl Pope, who was executive director of the Sierra Club for 18 years. Pope and Michael Bloomberg co-authored the book. Copyright 2017 by the authors and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. Pope promoted family planning in India as a Peace Corps Volunteer in India from 1968 to 1969.

DARLA MOORE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS I UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA I INTERNATIONAL MBA

Develop your career in

Global Business Leadership

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Your Peace Corps service has proven you are a changemaker – Use your skills with an MBA from the Darla Moore School of Business to become a Global Business Leader – and be rewarded for having made a difference in the world. Past International MBA candidates have received up to 70% of their tuition costs

in recognition of their competitiveness and service. All qualified admitted MBA candidates are considered for the following financial awards:

Coverdell Fellows

$20,0001 – awarded to selected top RPCV candidates based on the strength of their application

Global Leadership Fellows

$2,000 to $3,0002 – awarded automatically to all RPCV with submission of your Description of Service

Additional awards

$28,0003 – awarded automatically to all RPCV non-residents

All admitted RPCVs also eligible for general MBA awards 1

Approximate amount. Award covers up to 30% of the application program fee. $2,000 award for non-residents, $3,000 for residents. Approximate amount. Applied as a credit to non-resident tuition fee.

For more on our commitment to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers visit moore.sc.edu or contact our full-time MBA team, mba@moore.sc.edu or 1.803.777.3709

RANKED # 1 INTERNATIONAL MBA PROGRAM BY U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT WorldView ∙ Fall 2017 ∙ www.PeaceCorpsConnect.org | 17

CLIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE

GRAZING THROUGH DROUGHT African cattle keepers adopt common grazing rights By Matthew Brown

henever I ask farmers and livestock keepers in East Africa if the climate is changing, they always say, yes. They all say the rain patterns have changed. In these rural arid regions of Africa where people live so close to the margins, their livelihoods and their very lives depend on how much rain will fall each year. A few years ago, following East Africa’s 10-year drought in East Africa, I met a Samburu man named Lemayian who worked at a tourism lodge in the Kalama Community Conservancy. Lemayian was a warrior in his early 20s,

tall, thin and dressed in a traditional shuka decorated in beaded jewelry. Eighty percent of his cattle, likely over 50 animals, had died from lack of grass and water. He told me his brother had sold his own cows about three months before the height of the drought and now his brother was better off because he had money in his pocket to start again. Lemayian had waited too long. By the time he decided to sell his underfed cows, everyone else was in the same situation. With high inventory, prices went way down, and the 20-kilometer walk to the market to sell the cows was hardly worth the time and effort.

I asked Lemayian what he would have done differently. He told me he would rather have fewer animals and keep them alive than to lose such a large number. Long ago there were fewer people and fewer cattle, he said, and as a result, they all had better access to grass. But now with major droughts happening every 3 years or so, there isn’t enough grass. This results in conflict between Samburu and Maasai. For example, some Samburu died when they invaded Maasai grass banks in Il Ngwesi Conservancy. The conflict has continued to escalate as the pressure on grass has increased. Many

AMY VITALE

The Nature Conservancy aided cattle keepers in northern Kenya to negotiate agreements with neighboring national parks to graze their herds for brief periods in severe drought.

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people say that today they are worse off than they were when their fathers were young. This is a common story. It results from lack of management of open access grasslands, a real-life example of Hardin’s Tragedy of the Commons. Grazing reserves The Nature Conservancy is trying to change this story by securing natural resource rights for local people in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, improving grazing practices, and providing market access and increased benefits through tourism revenue as a result of better management. By creating community conservancies where local land ownership is recognized, improving grazing management, and providing access to livestock markets, we see villages demonstrating a new willingness to form a different narrative of communities with grazing reserves where cattle can survive the dry months. Our goal is to restore the grassland health to a point where the livestock and wildlife can be sustained all year long through a series of rotational grazing plans. Seven Maasai villages on the borders

… we see villages demonstrating a new willingness to form a different narrative – communities with grazing reserves where cattle can survive the dry months. of Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park agreed to contribute about 76,000 acres to a communal wildlife management area of about that would provide payments to them from wildlife-based photographic tourism. The payments pay medical bills, build school rooms, and improve livelihoods in the village. The zoning plan of the Randilen wildlife management area identifies a core conservation area that keeps grazing livestock out of the unfenced national park. There are now several tourist lodges in the area surrounding Tarangire, and the seven villages are experiencing an increase in annual tourism revenues. When cattle started to die this year, elders of the villages asked and received temporary access to the rich protected grasses of communal areas for their cattle. Ten days later the rains finally came and, as agreed, the Maasai cattle keepers moved their cattle back to other grazing areas where the rain had replenished the grass. More villages have since asked to join the wildlife management area. Forests to preserve We aren’t just reacting to the effects of a changing climate coming from other parts of the world. We are also trying to mitigate the impacts of the planet’s changing climate by reducing the region’s own carbon emissions and saving forests. One of the earth’s last remaining hunter-

gatherer tribes, the Hadzabe, live on a remnant of their traditional homeland in northern Tanzania. While many forests in northern Tanzania are being cut down for new agricultural plots, the Hadzabe are getting paid to protect theirs and save the carbon stored in those trees. The Nature Conservancy partners with Carbon Tanzania, Ujamma Community Resources Trust, and the Dorobo Fund to secure resource Hadzabe rights, improve community management, and generate revenues by more carefully managing natural resources to avoid deforestation. We helped the Hadzabe secure their lands to maintain their traditional lifestyle by helping them to acquire customary rights of occupancy, a kind of community land tenure, so they could benefit from their own natural resources. In this case, we are helping them to save their forest. In exchange for not cutting down trees, we and our partners have paid the Hadzabe community more than $200,000 over the last four years to provide better health, education, and land protection for the Hadzabe. These market-based solutions shift community action to improve climate resilience locally as well as mitigate carbon emissions globally. Climate change is real but I believe that by securing resource rights, improving management, and increasing benefits from a better managed resource, we can create a more resilient story for future generations.

Matt Brown ran a community tree nursery that promoted development of agroforestry demonstration plots in Ghana West Africa from 1992 to 1994. He is the conservation director for the Nature Conservancy’s Africa programs with offices in Arusha for the past eight years and recently returned to their Washington, DC office.

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CLIMATE

ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE

States, cities, businesses and schools vow to uphold the Paris Climate Accord By Jonathan Lash

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HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE

t is 25 years since the United biological processes. The accord is made States signed and ratified a treaty up of voluntary national commitments, recognizing climate change as a but the breadth of participation gives major threat to human well-being, it tremendous force – and makes the committing the nation defection of the United to reducing emissions of States announced this greenhouse gases. In the hot year by President Trump summer of 1992, responding profoundly dangerous to to growing public concern the success of the accord. about the global environment, The most technologically President George Bush advanced nation, the reversed an earlier decision second largest emitter, and and announced he would join cumulatively, the largest more than 100 other heads of source of the emissions that state at the Earth Summit in have already warmed the Jonathan Lash Rio. climate, seemed to be saying One of the agreements it doesn’t care. that emerged from that gathering was the UN Framework Convention States and cities step up on Climate Change that included the But many in the U.S. do care and goal of stabilizing the concentration of care deeply. Now, more than 2,000 greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at cities, states, companies, and campuses a “level that would prevent dangerous have pledged to take action to reduce anthropogenic interference with the greenhouse gas emissions, and to climate system.” The U.S. Senate ratified demonstrate to the world a continued the UN Framework by a vote of 92-0 commitment to the accord. This “We’re and 196 other countries also ratified. Still In” coalition reflects the reality that But since that time Congress has never in the absence of federal leadership, much enacted legislation to reduce U.S. of the action on climate change is coming emissions, and the failure of the U.S. from states, communities, organizations, to act led other global leaders to resist and individuals. From roof-top solar to pressure for climate action. Until the Paris hybrid vehicle fleets, these actions are Climate Accord. having an impact, and, in many cases The Paris Climate Accord was an building community. important milestone for the U.S. and the In fact, local action has been leading world. It signaled the shared intentions the way for years. Many states provide of nearly 200 nations to reduce emissions incentives for home owners to install and begin to slow the buildup of solar panels and more efficient heating greenhouse gases that is rapidly warming and cooling systems. Since 2009, a our world, disrupting weather, melting group of nine northeastern U.S. states polar ice, raising sea levels, and disrupting have required reduction of emissions

Companies ranging from General Electric to Walmart have begun to implement voluntary emissions reductions initiatives. from power plants. The California State Legislature recently extended that state’s established greenhouse gas reduction program in a bipartisan vote, with a newly aggressive goal of reducing emissions statewide by 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New York, and California have created “Green Banks” to leverage investment in sustainable projects and the creation of green jobs. The Institute for Sustainable Communities, a small non-profit organization in Vermont of which I serve as chair, is working with the Partnership for Resilient Communities helping lowincome neighborhoods become “energy resilient.” An example is the institute’s work with the Living Classrooms Foundation to bring solar energy and battery storage to neighborhoods affected by frequent power outages and expensive electricity. The institute has worked with Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe Counties in Florida – communities acutely aware of the impact of rising seas and worsening storms – to foster climate resilience and preparedness.

MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS

Wind currents in the hills near Palm Springs, California drive the blades of hundreds of wind turbines to generate electricity for major populations of southern California.

The California State Legislature recently extended that state’s established greenhouse gas reduction program in a bipartisan vote, with a newly aggressive goal of reducing emissions statewide by 40 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2030. Leadership on renewables Other Florida stakeholders are also taking a stand. Since the White House announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Accord, the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact pledged continued action to address a problem that threatens their communities. Companies ranging from General Electric to Walmart have begun to implement voluntary emissions

reductions initiatives. GE has reduced emissions by 42 percent. Walmart has set a goal to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources, and has eliminated 28 million tons of CO2 emissions from its global supply chair in the past seven years. More than 4,000 college and university presidents have signed commitments to reduce emissions by at least 80 percent in the coming decades.

Hampshire College where I serve as president, a small liberal arts college in snow country, has installed 19 acres of solar on campus to become 100 percent solar for electricity on an annualized basis, avoiding 3,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, and receiving annual savings of some $500,000. We converted 12 acres of mowed lawns back to meadows, avoiding more emissions and costs and restoring habitat for Meadowlarks and Bobolinks. And we built a net-zero energy, net-zero waste building, featured this year by National Geographic as one of the Top 10 Green Buildings of 2017. The involvement of students in school climate-action efforts is both highly encouraging and necessary. Who else will build the zero-carbon economy of the future but the generation who will inherit it? Can local action for climate completely offset the absence of national leadership? Not likely. Decarbonizing the national transportation system, rebuilding the national grid, creating and rapidly deploying advanced energy storage and management technologies, and rewarding companies that make investments to reduce emissions – these acts require national policy, including putting a price on carbon that accurately reflects the cost of global warming on our future. But leadership at every level not only sends a signal, it makes a difference. It speaks powerfully about what is possible, and signals to the world that many in the United States are taking responsibility for the effect of our actions.

Jonathan Lash is president of Hampshire College and serves on the board of the World Resources Institute where he was president for 18 years. He played a major role in the 2007 Call to Action on global warming. Beginning in 1967 he and his wife, Ellie, assisted villages in around San Jose de Ocoa to dig wells and build schools in the Dominican Republic and later trained other volunteers for Peace Corps programs in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic.

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CLIMATE

CHANGING THE POLITICAL CLIMATE Our little city had to be bold By Kitty Piercy

The extra chit in my pocket One of the things that gives me credibility when I ask people to take risks is my two years as a Peace Corps in Ethiopia. It’s been an extra chit in my pocket through the many career changes

I have made. That experience laid the groundwork for my choices to take up difficult causes such as reproductive rights; to serve others in my grassroots advocacy; teaching; serving as my district’s representative to the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as Eugene’s mayor. I would never have predicted that I would have done most of these things. Like the Peace Corps, when asked to serve, I found it impossible to say no. I learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer that I could be useful in a variety of ways. By being useful I acquired skills that I could build on. In Eritrea I taught English, art and poetry. I went on medical safari to inoculate children in the countryside. We had a library in our home. I volunteered at a sanitarium for people suffering from tuberculosis and leprosy. I traveled and experienced many different cultures and customs. I became a world citizen. This caused me to always look at issues and events from a world perspective, with deep appreciation for those who live all across our planet.

People tell me when faced with challenges, I have a tendency, as the Irish say, to “throw my hat over the wall.” I set big goals even when I have no assured outcome. In this case, it was my sense of being a world citizen that drove me forward. There was no question in my mind that Eugene, Oregon should do its part. To achieve this, it was essential to engage the business community. So my first initiative was to establish the Sustainable Business Initiative that brought expertise from across the community with what is called as appreciative inquiry model, a way to let the city know how it could support businesses that are adapting more sustainable practices and products. Our city manager was not very enthusiastic and the city council was downright reluctant, so I worked with some innovative thinkers at the University of Oregon to staff the effort. Eventually, we engaged the city and the city council accepted our 21 recommendations. COURTESY KITTY PIERCY

Climate change is the issue of our time and a challenge we have been all too slow to grasp on a broad scale. It is a world crisis that we must address at home as well as nationally and globally. In my twelve years as mayor of Eugene, Oregon, I worked to convene and galvanize my community around Climate Change. I was elected in 2004 and served for 12 years and there was criticism every step of the way. However, I was never alone and always buoyed by local and as well as national support as when seven years ago The Nation magazine’s national affairs correspondent John Nichols identified me as the most valuable local official for my activism in my city government and in the promotion of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. My city has a progressive reputation but there is also a strong strain of conservatism. Both of these traits are responsible for our very enlightened state land use policies that protect forests and farmland. Still, it was very challenging and controversial to get the Eugene city council and community to support advances in sustainability and climate action. These were considered state and federal issues that could not or should not be addressed locally. There was rampant suspicion here as in many other parts of the United States that our climate change campaign was a lefty plot to undercut business.

Both in and out of her secondary school in Asmara, now the capital of Eritrea, Kitty Piercy learned to explore and take the kinds of risks that led her to political advocacy for climate change.

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The Beijing summit I found working with these U.S. mayors very helpful and inspiring. Among out resolutions I sponsored one opposing the Keystone Pipeline and received some very testy responses from Alberta, British Columbia. In 2015 the West Coast mayors leveraged our collective power. The next year the U.S. State Department invited 20 of us to share our views at the U.S. China Climate Smart/Low Carbon Cities Summit in Beijing with 40 mayors of cities in China. Secretary of State John Kerry joined us to urge cities in both countries to work together effectively. Our city had to be bold and we had to be leaders. My own powers as the elected mayor are limited by our city manager/ city council form of government but we enacted the sustainability commission and our climate and energy work plan to

U.S. CHINA CLIMATE SUMMIT

We set up an office of sustainability and a sustainability commission, established a goal of carbon neutrality for all city operations, developed a community climate and energy plan, all city operations became zero waste, all city decisions were based on measurable sustainability criteria and measurements for city decision-making, and provided incentives for businesses to use sustainable practices, and leveraged partnerships across the community. These measures were consistent with my own actions as mayor. Twenty-one mayors were invited to sign on to the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, a document that committed our city to the Kyoto Protocol, even when our federal government would not sign. More than 900 U.S. cities have now signed the protection agreement and it is a model for mayoral response to the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. With help from the U.S. Conference of Mayors 21 mayors and I began to share information, gain access to climate experts and create a common vision influence congressional decision in Washington, D.C. We are also invited to the Sundance Climate Conference to hear climate change experts and, to be perfectly honest, enjoy hanging out with our host, Robert Redford.

As mayor of Eugene, Oregon and a leader among mayors advocating global climate action, Kitty Piercy was invited to the U.S. China Climate Summit in Beijing with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and a handful of other U.S. mayors last year.

reduce our local carbon emissions. We surveyed Eugene residents and found they had a high level of understanding about climate change and a commitment to act. We gain political and public support and were able to take some very big steps at a time when it is increasingly clear that incremental steps are not sufficient. Brave and bold youth When we were hit by the economic recession I used the event as an impetus to gather the community together to revitalize our downtown, focus on economic sectors consistent with our climate goals and develop our tech hub to support our entrepreneurs. It was the children of our community who have been brave and bold. They lobbied their city council to do more and brought legal cases against their state and federal governments to insist on more aggressive climate action. Some youth in the community asked me how they could influence city council to take bold action on climate change. I said come and talk to council about your concerns, in a factual, polite, and consistent way. They did so and did it well. They took the results of our 2011 community survey to remind council of the community-wide support and then asked council to adopt aggressive climate goals by ordinance. Their ask was perfect and the resulting

ordinance will move our community in the right direction for decades to come. It took persistence but now Eugene has perhaps the strongest climate ordinance in the nation. In the same spirit, I signed an Amicus Brief by Mary Wood, a University of Oregon professor of law and the director of the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center, that charges government with legal responsibility - based on Roman era legal concepts of public trust doctrine - to preserve the natural resources of its citizens for future generations. The times seem immeasurably difficult and yet I have great hope and faith in the gifts of all of us to meet the challenges. Our new mayor Lucy Vinis has picked up the charge and I look forward to supporting her efforts. And youth will have their day in court challenging the Trump administration. These young people are simply amazing and heartening, and they bring me hope for the future.

Kitty Piercy served as the mayor of Eugene, Oregon from 2004 and 2017. Between 1964 and 1966 she taught English and literature at a secondary school in Asmara, Eritrea prior to that nation’s independence from Ethiopia. Piercy served six years in the Oregon State Legislature and was minority leader of the House of Representatives.

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CLIMATE

SOLOMON CHANGES CLIMATE We inspire and fund Ghana’s own problem solvers By Averill Strasser

WATER CHARITY

One of those stories began s the world undergoes Through a series of events, his story unprecedented evolved into meaningful and measurable in Ghana at least a decade environmental changes environmental advancements, building resulting from climate the capacity of a local organization and ago when Peace Corps change, the Peace Corps the mentoring and training of a growing community is helping others prepare for number of local people and organizations environmental volunteer the impact. to continue the work. Only about nine percent of the Solomon helped Kate with her chores, in Ghana, Kate Schachter, estimated 7,200 Peace Corps Volunteers and Kate helped him and his family with currently working around the world are school fees and household expenses. She met Solomon Amuzu. The assigned to environmental projects but was impressed with Solomon’s devotion many others who teach in schools, run to his family, his willingness to learn, and story of such a relationship health projects, work with agricultural his inventiveness. coops or any of the other Peace Corps begins with a Peace Corps sectors develop secondary projects Just the beginning embracing the many challenges of climate After Kate left Ghana in 2007, she Volunteer who identified change. continued to help Solomon and his family They work alongside people in the of seven brothers and sisters. Solomon a very promising 16-yearcommunities where they live and with became the first in his family to complete local non-governmental organizations. senior secondary school. He went on old who had an interest in They make long-lasting relationships to graduate from a three-year general that extend beyond their service. It’s agriculture college curriculum at the making his community a also become common for volunteers to Kumasi Institute of Tropical Agriculture remain in or return to their countries of where he studied permaculture and better place. service to confront climate change with natural and sustainable agricultural their host-country nationals. techniques. He One of those discovered that stories began in current agricultural Ghana at least a methods damaged decade ago when the land and exposed Peace Corps people to poisonous environmental chemicals. volunteer Kate “I became Schachter met convinced that Solomon Amuzu, earth care, people a very promising care and fair share 16-year-old who (the foundational wanted to make ethical principles of Thousands of seedlings are sheltered in preparation for reforestation projects of the indigenous Call to his community permaculture) were Nature Permaculture tree planting project in Kunkunuru, Ghana. a better place. a better answer,” he 24 | WorldView ∙ Fall 2017 ∙ National Peace Corps Association

“Trees,” he said, “should be planted to fight climate change and to enhance the environment.” In 2013, he and three friends started Call to Nature Permaculture. They began with a tree nursery and vegetable gardens for schools, teaching young women and men to believe that they are the future,

and that they have the power to make a difference in the world. Michael McGaskey was in Peace Corps Ghana from 2012 to 2015. In his last year, Kate introduced him to Solomon before he came back to the States. When Michael returned to Ghana as an RPCV in 2016 he was impressed by Solomon’s work,

WATER CHARITY

told me once. “I immediately took action to help out my community and the world.” Solomon devoted himself to three goals: grey water systems that could improve water management for greater yields, school gardens that would engage kids and ensure they had access to healthier, organic produce and more trees.

Solomon Amuzu was 16 when he met Kate Schachter. Their friendship led the young Ghanaian to graduate from college and create Call to Nature Permaculture to improve water supplies and remediate pollution in communities in his homeland.

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WATER CHARITY

The NPCA and Water Charity have funded a third project in Ghana to provide clean water and jobs in a mining area on the banks of the Black Volta River in southern Ghana. The river is contaminated by massive runoffs from deforested upstream lands. Solomon Amuzu was instrumental in helping another local group, H2O Africa Care project, to create a safer environment for Ntobroso village.

his potential, and his new organization, so Michael sought the support of the National Peace Corps Association and Water Charity, the organization I cofounded in part because of my own Peace Corps experience in Bolivia many years ago. We funded Solomon’s first project and Michael offered his technical support for Call to Nature Permaculture Project - Ghana, which greatly increased the water storage capacity, and provides an extensive water distribution system for 3,000 people in Kunkunuru. It continues to impact on food security as well as the environment, but, most importantly, it gave Solomon the administrative and managerial tools necessary for him to lead his organization to the next level. Permaculture takes root I met Solomon when I was in Ghana for Peace Corps West Africa Let Girls Learn Training last year. I was impressed by his drive, confidence, and inspiration so we offered financial and technical

support for Call to Nature Permaculture Tree Planting Project - Ghana. The goal is to plant and maintain 20,000 trees in two areas of Ghana, resulting in cleaning the air, providing oxygen, cooling the streets and city, conserving energy, preventing water pollution and erosion, providing protection from ultraviolet rays, saving water, providing food and nutritional products, and providing a canopy and habitat for wildlife. Those measures benefit 3,850 residents and remediate the effects of climate change for the rest of the city, which is near Accra, the national capital. They also inspired hundreds of people to volunteerism and created more jobs in the community. We then implemented the Call To Nature Permaculture Tree Planting Project II - Ghana to plant 20,000 Cedrela tree seedlings along the Apapomu river banks as it runs through two villages on the edge of Accra. We recruited 500 volunteers and partnered with local schools, churches and the general

public to achieve a successful outcome in the region. The environmental benefits are reaching almost 5,000 residents. To carry this story forward, I have watched Solomon’s foresight and leadership develop as he provides support for the leaders of other local NGOs. Solomon is mentoring Nana Kudjoe Kesse of H20 Africa Care, through the processes of project planning, fundraising, and project administration to lead the Ntobroso Borehole Project - Ghana. The site is a mining community in Brong Ahafo region on the Black Volta River in southern Ghana. The new borehole now provides an ample supply of clean water to an agricultural community of 1,100 people. Solomon scales up Call to Nature Permaculture is now working on four acres of land loaned by a Kunkunuru elder community to grow food and provide for the people of Kunkunuru and other in nearby

The project not only provided direct benefit to 3,850 residents and remediated the effects of climate change for the rest of the city, which is near Accra, the national capital. They also inspired hundreds of people to volunteerism and created more jobs in the community.

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communities who are needy. They’ve begun training volunteers and employees and plan to expand to 10 acres and build a base camp of 10 small houses and a training center for 50 out of bamboo, straw, wood, mud and waste car tires. Solomon Amuzu’s Call to Nature Permaculture plans to plant 100,000 tree species by the year 2020. The thriving organization’s ability to grow is limited only by the interest they are able to generate in their message, and the funding they are able to obtain for their work. His story demonstrates that the Peace Corps community has the capacity to conduct projects that are directed toward the environment, including preparation for and remediation of the effects of climate change. We have the ability to work with local organizations like Solomon’s to develop their capacity to seek funding, implement and manage projects, monitor and evaluate the activities, and provide reporting. Perhaps most importantly, it shows that we are able to identify, assist, and empower talented and ambitious local leaders like Solomon. Their work provides an immediate impact on the environment, but their generation’s vibrant dedication can expand geometrically to have a measurable impact on world climate.

Averill Strasser served in Bolivia from 1966 to 1968. He is chief operating officer of the nonprofit Water Charity which has funded an estimated 3,200 water, sanitation and public health projects in 72 countries. Water Charity began a partnership with NPCA in 2015 to fund an estimated $500,000 for new development projects that involve serving or returned Peace Corps Volunteers.

Want to change the world? Expand your worldview Fletcher students are global citizens in and out of the classroom, and make their mark on the world in a meaningful way. Join the ranks of Fletcher influencers making a difference. Watch this 360 view to find out how. fletcher.tufts.edu/360View Contact The Office of Admissions & Financial Aid +1 617-627-3040 fletcheradmissions@tufts.edu fletcher.tufts.edu

TK Next Step WorldView ∙ Fall 2017 ∙ www.PeaceCorpsConnect.org | 27

JIM HITCHMAN

The receding snows of the 637 glaciers of the Greater Caucasus feed the rivers of the Republic of Georgia and carry human debris to the Black and Caspian seas.

FIELD REPORTS

RPCVs for Environmental Action recall their sites

VANISHING GLACIERS

eorgia is a country the size of South Carolina with 26,000 rivers running through it and bordered on the north and south by the Caucasus Mountain ranges, but hundreds of its glaciers are rapidly disappearing. Eventually, the melting glaciers will mean less groundwater renewal from winter snows and ice melts, causing droughts and adding to problems of serious water quality problems already made worse by poor enforcement of mining laws in a country rich in mineral resources. Floods wash away soil from the deforested mountainsides and tons of trash from farms and towns. River banks are lined with trees whose branches collect plastic bags as “flags” that show how high the rivers rise at flood stage. It all flows down the ravines to those rivers to feed the Black or Caspian seas. The nation’s villages and cities hire

crews that do a great job of sweeping the sidewalks and streets, but most Georgians assume that someone else will pick up after them. Along the nation’s river banks, illegal dumping from homes and construction sites is rampant–out of sight, out of mind. There are more than 60 official landfills in Georgia, but only four of them meet international standards. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I worked for Spectri in Kutaisi, an environmental organization that performs development work throughout Georgia. Because I was deep into learning about environmental issues in Georgia, I also provided information to support the work of many other activists in my local region who worked in waste management, energy efficiency, water quality, flooding, deforestation, or agricultural sustainability. A decade earlier, I served for three years in Ghana. I discovered that the waste management problems I saw in Georgia equaled those from West Africa,

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which are not being properly addressed in either country. Inspired by Georgia’s youth I was encouraged by the active Georgian youth that I met at trainings at Green Camps and Let’s Play Together events. They demonstrated sincere commitment and indignation over the deteriorated environmental state of their country and that enthusiasm gave me hope. After classroom trainings and handson activities, we began waste cleanup events where overwhelming rains had deposited large amounts of trash. This was a random group of 12- to 17-yearolds who started meeting every two to three weeks to target the accumulations of trash. They were publicly engaged. Spectri has for 20 years been focusing its resources on youth awareness, alternative energy, flood control, waste management, climate change, and industrial pollution, all issues that Georgian public policy has been slow

to identify and implement. Spectri offices are in Kutaisi, Georgia’s secondlargest city and the first city to carry out municipal-level collection of separated plastics. The city started collection with a grant from the European Union Black Sea Cross Border Cooperation program. Spectri supported the city’s grant request and enjoys strong administrative ties with City Hall, a connection that is vital to successes on this scale. Spectri has also expanded its influence in neighboring countries through Students for Energy Efficiency, a university student-led group with similar youth-led groups in Ukraine, Moldova and Armenia. I found in my work here that good graphic resources make my job much easier. We’ve used “Solid Waste Management: A key to delivering the global goals” from WasteAid International to demonstrate how improved waste management affects all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially jobs, quality of life and climate change. Another is the “Actionable Impact Themes” graphic that looks at waste management in the framework of development. These graphics demonstrate #TheWayISeePC an opportunity to translate good community waste and energy management into

employment opportunities and improved health. As citizens take charge of the natural resource capital in their communities, they are empowered and, in the UN Sustainability model, can meet their basic needs. Am I dreamer? Let us all be dreamers.

Kate Schachter is a co-founder of RPCVs for Environmental Action and has served on the NPCA board of directors and as coordinator for the Group Leaders Forum. She went to Georgia as a Response Volunteer in 2016 and served in Ghana from 2004 to 2007.

DROPS OF WATER

f we want to reduce “human impact” on the global temperature rise, it will require governance and behavior change; it will not be about technology. My journey through Peace Corps 2004-2006 and subsequent work founding and building A Single Drop for Safe Water Inc. in the Philippines has changed my views about development and how to create impact from that of using technology and engineering-

based infrastructure to gaining a better understanding of the role of governance and personal behavior in determining our wellbeing. When I arrived in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer I was in the first stage of changing from an industry-focused mechanical engineer to an engineer focused on community organizing and governance building to facilitate social impact using technology. I was posted far from the country’s beaches, corals and coconuts. I was a water and sanitation volunteer assigned to work on a local government water system in Ambaguio, 1300 feet above sea level and 17 miles from the market at the end of a “new” road in the Cordillera Mountains in the middle of Luzon. My job was to mobilize communities to build, operate and maintain a water system, pay for service, and work with the local government to take responsibility. I watched my local government colleagues work, learned about their roles and influence in Ambaguio and the pressures they were under from their own community and from higher government levels. I also watched the forest disappear and listened to the stories of how the seasons were changing for the worse. Access to markets got better and technology made it easier to farm, yet people had to work harder to make as much money, because yields were decreasing. This was due to nutrient deficiencies as they repeated crops, but also it was hotter, the dry season was longer and the wet season wetter. Targeting governance After Peace Corps service, I cofounded A Single Drop for Safe Water to continue working in the field. A partnership with a governance-focused development agency was instrumental in changing from a traditional technology/ community-organizing NGO to a governance organization that also does water, sanitation and hygiene work. This step turned out to be a very cool and inspirational transition. Without governance any work we did was not sustainable and we created a niche market and have became an influential thought leader at all government levels.

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Kevin Lee, Ambaguio, Nueva Vizcaya Philippines, 2004-2006

A SCHOOL’S ARCHITECTURE

y the time our Ghana II cohort arrived at our schools after what we thought was exhaustive training, we really knew a lot about the country – and we probably thought we knew even more. We believed the following: the economic and educational level south of the Volta River was comparable to rural Portugal or Sicily; the southern edge

of the Sahara Desert was retreating from northern Ghana at a mile or so each year and the Akosombo dam project was going to turn the Volta River into Lake Volta and bring electrification, a large aluminum smelting industry, water transport and irrigated farms to Western Africa. Our incountry training even included a tour of the dam construction site where we pigged Scientist Khatuna Tsiklauri works with ecology students from Telavi State out on the fresh- University at the Batsara National Protected Area on a project funded by a Peace Corps Partnership. water crayfish. I’ve been back to Ghana twice in the last 15 years and I would like to expand a little on the have several observations about what has architecture and infrastructure issue, happened there since 1962. which I think is symptomatic of “how not The first is that there’s been truly to do it” for environmental sustainability substantial economic progress, but the as well as for human comfort in the gap between Ghana and those once-poor tropics. parts of Europe has become enormous. The school campus on which I taught The second is that the gap is and lived was built in the late 1920s and intimately related to climate change early 1930s. Walls were thick, windows and a failure to implement sustainable were shuttered though not glazed, and environmental practices: the Sahara is trees and arcades provided shade. Cross again moving south, population has ventilation and an occasional electricallyquadrupled, civil infrastructure has fallen powered ceiling fan, along with acceptable far behind residential and commercial attire that was appropriate to the climate, construction, and architecture now relies made our working and living spaces on air conditioning instead of the climatecomfortable most of the time, despite the adapted low-energy-demand structures heat. that were previously prevalent. In contrast, what I experienced The third is the aluminum industry in 2002 and 2008 were thin-walled was supposed to make electrical power buildings, glazed windows, air accessible for home and business but the conditioning that was inadequate when population boomed and the power grid it worked, and that frequently did not expanded, and the smelting operation work, either because it was broken or never flourished. Brown-outs and blackbecause the electrical power had failed – outs are common and old-timers are which all contributed to tropical misery. convinced that the lake has dramatically To exacerbate the misery, temperatures changed the climate for the worse in the seemed higher, and western-styled central region – likely insult on top of the clothing that is unsuitable for a tropical injury of global climate change. climate is increasingly the norm.

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JIM HITCHMAN

Climate change adaptation was becoming a hot topic in the development field. We were able to address these challenges through engineering to mitigate impact, and through governance and local demand creation to allow communities to prepare and adapt. But the biggest and most tangible impact was through humanitarian response, a new field for us. In less than three years we had responded to three large flooding events: Tropical Storm Washi, Typhoon Bopha, and Typhoon Haiyan, which killed approximately 10,000 people. Storm frequency was increasing and locations were moving further south: Bopha started closer to the Equator than any other typhoon on record, reflecting climate science concerns that it is not simply a weather cycle; it is also accentuated by human impacts. The communities where we work are actively talking about the symptoms and impacts of climate change. They sure as hell know that it exists and that they need to adapt. They also know that they personally have not contributed much to it, and they do know who to blame. There are no magic bullets to solve this issue. Technology will allow us to meet the targets, but it will require citizens of the world to reduce their footprint while actively participating in the governance process and to ensure that government continues to move in the right direction.

Mel Siegel taught physics and math at Achimota Secondary School and served as a boys’ residence housemaster from 1962 to 1964.

IN THE ANDES

increase stress on plants, and alter the ranges of several important crops and insects. People in the Andes face lower food production and increased prices as climate change and its effects contribute to decreased crop diversity, land degradation, environmental changes, and increased population pressure with its attendant poverty and internal migration. Most of the hardship will be borne by farmers with only a small plot of land. They may not call it climate change but it does not go unnoticed there. How farmers perceive their environment is an indicator of seasonal climate variability. Communities can respond to challenges by taking specific actions such as adjusting their herd sizes, diversifying sources of income, and acquiring usage rights to higher elevation land. They can adopt new modern crops and agricultural techniques or try to recover traditional strategies. A recent study reports that those homes with significant ethnic knowledge of traditional farming practices incorporating ritual and Quechua language maintain greater

diversity in their fields, planting tens of different types of potatoes, for example. This may indicate that the preservation of Andean culture could preserve genetic diversity and mitigate the effects of climate change. Farmers in the Andes can and do pursue strategies to mitigate climate change by maintaining their own societal ethics and social structure together with traditional indigenous knowledge, respect for the land, and crop diversity. With our language training and sensitivity to local cultures, Peace Corps Volunteers in Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia are an integral force against Andean climate change. These first-hand field experiences build in us a lifelong commitment to reducing the impact of climate change worldwide.

one of the Bolivian farmers I worked with as a natural resources volunteer ever mentioned climate change. They said the rainy season started later every Ellen Arnstein taught classes in solid waste year, dry seasons were dryer and dryer, management, tree biology and English and there used to be more shade trees and started two schoolyard nurseries and a windbreaks, there’s not as much water as vegetable garden in Camargo, Bolivia from there used to be, and an increase in hail 2008 to 2008. She now supervises volunteer storms and disease has lowered their crop stewardship projects for the Emerald Nature yields. Conservancy in the parks of Boston. Climate change is complex and it’s hard to predict its impact in the Andes. However, we can make some assumptions: high elevations will warm to a greater degree than the global mean warming and we expect changes in oceanic circulation, extreme meteorological events, and precipitation anomalies to severely reduce water supply. Some of these predictions have already come true: in 2009, the 18,000-year-old Chacaltaya glacier disappeared six years earlier than predicted; water levels of Lake Titicaca, which supports 2.6 million people, dropped by 2.6 feet, the lowest level since 1949; and the rainy season in the high plains has been reduced from six to three months. Less water leads to fireprone landscapes, destabilized Once Bolivia’s second largest, Lake Poopo has dried up, killing millions of animals and forcing Reve Valero and slopes, and erosion. Warmer temperatures promote disease, others to abandon the area south of La Paz.

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DAVID MERCADO/REUTERS

Hopefully, the realization that the climate is becoming more inhospitable and that energy will probably become more expensive and less reliable before it becomes more reliable will encourage a return to adaptive architectures and life styles.

FEEL GOOD ABOUT THE FUTURE 0F THE HUMAN RACE. For MPH student Elizabeth Toure, the word “community” conjures an unlikely picture: a bowl of rice with sauce. When she shared the dish with a group of women in Guinea, as a Peace Corps volunteer, she felt welcomed into their community. Establishing community trust is central to breaking down barriers to advance public health and health education globally. As a neighbor, teacher and friend in her Guinea community, Elizabeth led reproductive health and family planning classes, went doorto-door to hang mosquito nets and even founded a girls’ soccer team in the village. Elizabeth joined the Peace Corps to challenge herself and help a community. Now she’s earning an MPH from the Bloomberg School to change the world.

Join us in protecting health, saving lives—millions at a time. jhsph.edu/feel-good Scholarships and financial aid options are available.

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LETTER FROM CHISINAU

SMOKEHOUSE EXPERIMENT

RPCVs offer Moldova ribs, local beers and business transparency By David Jarmul opportunities Moldovans told them couldn’t work. As Peace Corps Volunteers, Stahlman and Smith had launched community projects and promoted small business in their small northern city of Bălți. Time and again, Moldovan friends there would say they couldn’t start their own ventures in the face of stifling bureaucracy and widespread corruption.

drawing to a close, Stahlman and Smith organized a meeting with seven other volunteers and brainstormed possible new businesses. “There were tons of ideas,” Smith recalls. “We didn’t understand why people here weren’t doing them. We created a big list and asked ourselves: ‘What are we good at? What are we passionate about?’” Stahlman and Smith decided their American-style barbecue and brew pub could promote community and honesty along with hushpuppies and BBQ tacos. No bank would bankroll their restaurant but some of their fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and other friends gave Smokehouse financial support through an Indiegogo campaign. “It was like a barn-raising,” says Smith, sitting next to a row of barstools emblazoned with the names of backers who donated at least $100. Stahlman and Smith teamed up with Vlad Shuleansky, a Chișinău IT expert who volunteers to fight human trafficking and plays on a local ultimate Frisbee team called the Flying Mamaligas, named after the country’s traditional round loaves of polenta. Shuleansky and the two Americans planned their restaurant but quickly encountered months of applications for licenses, financial forms, inspections, and other requirements. Many of these processes were directed by officials and suppliers who found creative ways to drag their feet unless, of course, the restaurant chose to provide them with some financial incentive. DAVID JARMUL

football sits on the bar of Smokehouse Restaurant, located just off Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt Boulevard, the main street in Moldova’s capital city, Chișinău. Signs advertise Trivia Nights and a Super Bowl party. The menu lists pulled pork sandwiches and ribs along with lagers and pale ales, but owners Matt Stahlman and David Smith are selling more than barbecue and beer after completing their Peace Corps service here in July 2014. They’re offering optimism with a side of slaw, especially for the more than 80 percent of Smokehouse customers who are Moldovan, mainly young professionals who come to eat nachos and sip beers in the country’s first restaurant to feature local breweries. Stahlman and Smith launched their now-thriving business in 2016 while refusing to pay bribes or accept outmoded local business practices, and they’ve done it working side by side with a Moldovan team to build what Smith calls “a community of optimists” in Europe’s poorest country. Many Moldovans have left home for jobs in other countries. “A lot of people don’t believe something like this can exist in Moldova,” Stahlman says. They come here and say, ‘Wow, yes it can.’” Stahlman, who is 31, was a home brewer back in California but his only restaurant experience was two weeks at a Taco Bell while he was in high school in Topeka, Kansas. Even that was two weeks more than for the 29-year-old Smith, who grew up in Virginia. They opened Smokehouse in part to pursue business

As small business owners, we now have skin in the game. Our ability to talk with people on their own level is so much greater.’ Open for business “As a Peace Corps volunteer, you have to manage from behind,” Smith says. So he decided he could be more effective by opening his own business after his close of service, taking on those risks himself. “As small business owners, we now have skin in the game. Our ability to talk with people on their own level is so much greater.” As their Peace Corps service was

Helped by reporters The three young owners refused to pay even a dollar in bribes. “We never gave

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U.S. Ambassador James D. Pettit (in tie) joins (from left) Smith, Stahlman and Shuleansky in a toast at the restaurant’s grand opening.

an inch,” Smith said. “We figured that eventually they would back down.” Smith and the others went public with their complaints. When a group of officials came to Smokehouse for a meeting, they were greeted by a lawyer and a reporter ready to report on the conversation. When the health department threatened to shut them down, the three owners went to the press. Eventually, after five months, they got all the approvals they needed. “There actually is a rule of law here and the tools exist for more transparency,” Smith says. “They’re just not being used. Bureaucrats do their best to obscure everything.” The problems didn’t stop there. A local meat supplier wouldn’t cut its pork with enough meat on the ribs for barbecue. Moldovan bakeries refused to bake American-style buns. A local soft drink distributor wouldn’t provide the kind of refrigerator display case the restaurant needed. In response, Smokehouse reached out whenever possible to newer suppliers, small business owners like themselves who had a personal stake in their companies and were far more flexible and responsive.

Indeed, in the short time since Smokehouse opened, it has emerged as a hub for both Moldovan and foreign entrepreneurs in Chișinău and beyond, providing a place where they can share

with Shuleansky and a team of about 25 Moldovan employees. “I don’t know what Moldova will be like in 10 or 20 years,” Stahlman says. “I want to be here as long as I have an interest. I do feel that I’ll be connected to Moldova for the rest of my life.” Smith, too, has no plans to return to the States anytime soon. Like Stahlman, he traveled as a child and is comfortable remaining abroad. Both also view Smokehouse as extending the ideals that brought them to Moldova in the first place, through the Peace Corps. “I think so many people view volunteer service as temporary; I think of it as a way of living your whole life, not just for two years,” Smith says. “I don’t think every RPCV is going to want to open up a barbecue joint, but I encourage them to hop on whatever train is for them.” “We’re touching more people now than we did as volunteers,” Stahlman says. “We’re connected to more people.” Asked whether he thinks this is true more generally, and what their story might

No bank would bankroll their restaurant but some of their fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and other friends gave Smokehouse financial support through an Indiegogo campaign. resources and lift each other’s spirits. Smokehouse displays its own business principles prominently on its website. It has established a website called Startin. md that answers questions about doing business in Moldova, with information about regulations, visas, taxes and other topics. There’s also Smith’s blog, Open Source Entrepreneurship, which offers insightful, occasionally hilarious, commentary about his experiences. Not long ago, Stahlman moved to Germany with his wife. He flies back to Chișinău occasionally and is now less active in the restaurant’s daily business. Smith continues as the manager along

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mean for current and returned Peace Corps volunteers from other countries, he pauses and then delivers his message with a grin: “Beer brings people together.” Smith laughs. “Yeah, that’ll resonate with Peace Corps volunteers.” David Jarmul was a TEFL teacher as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ilam and Kirtipur, Nepal, in the late 1970s. He is currently serving as a community development volunteer in Ialoveni, Moldova, along with his wife, Champa, who teaches English. The former head of news and communications at Duke University, Jarmul is blogging about their experiences at notexactlyretired.com.

HONOR

GUAMBIANO WOMEN

Harding winner’s first lessons among war-ravaged communities By Dee Aker

Dr. Dee Aker received the Deborah Harding Women of Achievement Award from the Women of Peace Corps Legacy at the NPCA’s Peace Corps Connect conference in August. Aker is a psychological anthropologist and the founder of the Women PeaceMakers program at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego.

Sylvia, Cauca, Colombia where I would learn from and share with the Guambiano and other indigenous communities. Peace Corps opened me to the world in a profound way, particularly to my capacity and responsibility to learn from it so I could be more consciously engaged. The wisdom being lived by this Colombian community I was privileged to join included authenticities and integrity that I have found powerfully present and recoverable since that time–

be those in conflict or post-conflict settings or simple daily life. Regardless of the challenges encountered around the world where I have been fortunate to live and work, compassion, inclusion, and resilience are essential resources to be tapped in our humanity. These common capabilities are now keys to my work in peacebuilding. They were tools in my professional development in psychological anthology as well as touchstones for my years in social work, education, journalism/media, and in developing programs for youth, women, and ‘whole communities’ seeking paths to peace around the globe. JAIME SAIDARRIAGA

often point to a time in Uganda when I was witness to and reporting on the role of women in rebuilding war-torn communities and the role they played in creating one of the first great African constitutions written by the common people. But I first realized that women were essential to civilization – maintaining it and recovering it after chaos – when Dee Aker I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia. I can never forget the image of Guambiano women managing survival through hundreds of years of forced migration up higher and higher into the Andes that was my awakening. Whether it was their ability to manage the death of a child or keep a family alive in the worst of situations, these women reached into my core and they were the initiation to explore and share what would become so important in my life -- to tell their inspirational, real stories, the stories that help all of us know how to survive and know love. I became a Peace Corps volunteer in late summer of 1963. The reasons I joined were both the inspiration of President Kennedy and a desire to be of service somewhere. Our training was in Nebraska, a pretty flat space in anticipation of going to the Andes; I eventually ended up at about 9,000 ft. in

A Guambiano woman and her child joined hundreds of friends and family to celebrate 40 years of their Cauca regional indigenous council in Piendamo Cauca six years ago.

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ACHIEVEMENTS

FODEN LEADS THRIVE By Peter V. Deekle Thrive Networks, an international organization that has pioneered in health and education for 30 years announced that Lynn Foden has been named chief executive officer to lead the organization’s expansion efforts in Southeast Asia and Africa. Foden is a former chief of operations for Peace Corps’ Africa region. The board chair for Thrive Networks, Carrie Eglinton Manner, said Foden’s leadership skills in health and education were a perfect match for the organization to strengthen its programming with continued support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian government, Dubai Cares, and other supporters. Thrive operates evidence-based programs and technologies in water, sanitation, hygiene, and education services for underserved populations in Southeast Asia and Africa. Also known as East Meets West Foundation, the nonprofit added the programs in Africa five years ago and is refocusing its Southeast Asia efforts in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Foden comes from serving as chief of international operations for Room to Read where she oversaw 10 country programs building literacy in secondary schools, school completion programs in secondary schools, and life-long learning projects in Asia and Africa. Her technical knowledge and experience in water, sanitation, public health, and education includes work in the private and public sectors. Her Peace Corps career includes appointments as associate country director in 1992 in Mali, country director in Central African Republic in 1994, special assistant to the regional director in

1996, and chief of operations for the 27 countries of the African region from 2006 to 2012. “From my early days in the Peace Corps developing community water and sanitation systems in Africa, to my latest work managing literacy programs in Asia and Africa for Room to Read,” Foden says, “I’ve always looked the opportunity to combine fresh, new thinking with an evidence-based approach to helping communities.”

BANGLADESH Margaret Goodman (98-00) began her ninth long-distance bicycle trip in Quebec City in July. She has made five week-long bike trips, two one-month trips, and one two-month trip. The most recent was a 3,100-mile ride last year from Seattle to Pittsburgh. She is a retired expert in international affairs who served as Peace Corps country director and the staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

INDONESIA Amanda Silva (12-15), NPCA Community Fund and Partnerships Coordinator, represented the District of Columbia in the Elite Miss Earth Day USA contest hosted in Washington, D.C. (August 2-6). The contest engages delegates of all ages within Miss Earth United States who take part in multiple environmental awareness efforts in their communities and beyond.

JAMAICA Jacqui Patterson (91-94) is director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program and coordinator & cofounder of Women of Color United. Patterson has worked as a researcher, program manager, coordinator, and advocate engaged in women‘s rights, racial and

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economic justice, violence against women, HIV/AIDS prevention, racial justice, and environmental and climate justice. She served as a senior women’s rights policy analyst for ActionAid and assistant vicepresident for HIV/AIDS programs for Interchurch Medical Assistance World Health providing management and technical assistance to medical facilities and programs in 23 countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

KENYA Lyn and Arthur Dobrin (65-67) direct the Kenya Project providing funds for an elementary school in Kisii, Kenya. They have led service trips for U.S. social workers through Adelphi University and have written novels and folk tales about Kenya. Arthur was in charge of the educational component of the Kisii District office of the Department of Cooperative Development and continues to support and has led educational safaris since 1975.

NIGERIA Alicia Wicks (66-68) received the Centralia College Distinguished Alumnus award in May. She is the founder and director of Maasai Made and Karibu Beading Collective, two organizations that facilitate traditional Maasai women selling their crafts in the U.S. Profits support food supplies and education for their children. She taught at a migrant camp and a residential school for delinquent boys, adopted three specialneeds children, and administered the new Individualized Certificate Program at Centralia College. In 2013, she worked with girls in the slums of Monrovia and Liberia, and at a school that served as a hospital during the Ebola pandemic. In Hohoe, Ghana, she taught young unmarried mothers to sew.

PANAMA IBM has announced that Gina Tesla (00-02) has been named vice-president for corporate citizenship. Tesla worked in an economic empowerment project

in Panama’s Kuna and Panamanian communities as a volunteer. After graduate school at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, she joined IBM in 2005 and coordinates the company’s nine-year-old corporate pro bono service projects in Ghana with Peace Corps.

PHILIPPINES Farrar Atkinson (62-64), celebrated her 80th birthday in Georgia in June ith some of her former students from the Philippines with whom she has maintained contacts during more than 50 years since her service. The mayor of Lawrenceville greeted them at a weeklong mini-reunion/ birthday celebration. Eric Whitaker (80-82) is the acting deputy assistant secretary of East Africa, Sudan and South Sudan Affairs for the

U.S. Department of State. He heads an office that covers 11 African nations. As a Foreign Service officer, Whitaker served in positions in Korea, Sudan, Uganda, Croatia, Ethiopia, Mali, and Mozambique.

TANZANIA Brian Singer (93-95) is the founder of Project Zawadi. The project began when he raised funds in Minnesota to offer school fees to a family of four orphans at his Peace Corps site. The project offered financial support for other children and in 2017 held a teacher conference in Arusha.

TOGO The Windy City Times honored Jes Scheinpflug (10-12) and 29 other lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists for their contributions in the Chicago area. Jes is development director for Nothing Without a Company and is a board member at Expanding Lives, a nonprofit that empowers West African

girls who are the first in their family to attend high school. With colleagues at TransWorks, she created a book of poetry about experiences of trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming individuals. Jes also served with AmeriCorps.

ZAMBIA Camillia Freeland-Taylor (13-15) is now an agricultural marketing specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She taught agroforestry, beekeeping, conservation farming, gardening, income generation and animal husbandry, she started Linking Income Food and Environment. She built a school under a Peace Corps Partnership grant and is building a library with a grant from the NPCA community fund and other crowdfunding at GoFundMe. Peter V. Deekle is a regular contributor to WorldView and served in Iran from 1968 to 1970.

TK SIT

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RETURN TO TASSA OUIRGANE A survival plan for orchards in the High Atlas By Mark Apel

lived in the Azzeden Valley of the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, counting the heads of the small herds of wild Barbary sheep that grazed 2,000 hectares of Toubkal National Park. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer working for the country’s Eaux et Forets – Water and Forests Service. It was 1986. Those sheep had been some of last herds of Morocco’s wild Barbary sheep. They were just across the river from the little village of Tassa Ouirgane. It was from this little village that my forest service counterpart, Omar, and I would hike into the reserve to document the presence and movement of these animals. Barbary Sheep no longer inhabit the reserve. According to villagers’ accounts, they moved higher into the mountains to escape the influence of humans. But the people of Tassa Ouirgane are still there, trying to eek a living out of a river bottom that was damaged by a dramatic flood

in 1995 and by climate change. Hectares of land these villagers had farmed for generations was carried away in the deluge that is blamed on climate change. Resilient orchardists These farmers who tend to the fruit and nut trees of the Azzeden Valley can no longer depend on the snowmelt and water that used to flow out of the mountains to irrigate their groves. This is especially true in the months of June, July and August when barely a trickle of water flows down their irrigation canals in the river bottoms. Conversely, when it rains, it pours and efforts to rebuild their garden terraces are frustrated by these low-grade floods. There is a deep, abiding compassion in this village for the future of their people as demonstrated by a group of men known as the Tassa Ouirgane Association for the Environment and Culture. In addition,there is a women’s

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cooperative that was formed with the help of the High Atlas Foundation (HAF) to help the young women of the village improve their income through the sale of handicrafts. The participatory approach has become the bedrock of the High Atlas Foundation to help communities decide for themselves what their priorities are. This approach was used in 2012 by the foundation with the residents of Tassa Ouirgane to help them determine where their greatest needs lay, and improving their water infrastructure to irrigate their trees has become paramount. The people of Tassa Ouirgane are resilient and never fail to open their homes to strangers. In April of this year, I came back to the village as a High Atlas Foundation and Farmer to Farmer volunteer consultant and met with the same men’s association that I met with last year when I was a volunteer consultant. Other Peace Corps Volunteers have come and worked in the park since

more nurseries. Jan is the same age I was when I first arrived in Tassa Ouirgane more than 33 years ago. He will be working with the same sense of commitment and dedication this beautiful place and these wonderful people. I’m proud to be able to pass along the torch, after all these years, and see Tassa Ouirgane become more resilient in the face of a changing climate and environment.

1986 but I was the first. As we sat over tea and lunch in the house of the association president, Raiss Si Mohammed Idhna, the farmers delighted in telling tales of my life among them and of my yellow motorcycle, back when many of these men were just young boys. The Raiss’s house is built on a hill with a spectacular view of the park and the valley, a view that I never grow tired of. Flood control and a solar pump Last year I helped them write a $48,000 grant to the United Nations Development Programme to try to control the erosion by flooding, to improve irrigation, to build a new well, to install a solar pump and water storage facility for the dry season. The grant was awarded in March of this year. Finally, the orchards of Tassa Ouirgane will have a chance to survive through the dry seasons and farmers will have an opportunity to rebuild some of their lost garden terraces. They will also have a tree nursery. Most of the existing trees bear olives, walnuts, peaches and plums, but these trees are owned by individuals. Tassa Ouirgane has a chance to become an example of community-based development that is truly in the hands

of the community. Our goal is to create a tree nursery in which the entire farm community can grow seedlings that will then be distributed to farmers in the valley who don’t have any fruit or nut trees. UNDP has an opportunity to make the orchards of Tassa Ouirgane a model for community resilience once all the pieces are in place. HAF is perfectly positioned to help make these views a reality. The UNDP director of projects for Morocco, Ms. Badia Sahmy, came with High Atlas Foundation staff to explain this new community nursery concept to the farmers. To kick-start this project, the Foundation brought an intern from Belgium, Jan Thibaud, who will spend two months in Tassa Ouirgane and survey surrounding villages for their potential to start

Mark Apel is an area extension agent for Cochise County in southeast Arizona and a member a University of Arizona faculty. This was his second USAID Farmer to Farmer tour in Morocco and was sponsored by Land O’ Lakes International Development and the High Atlas Foundation. Apel was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco from 1982 to 1986 and monitored Barbary Sheep in the High Atlas Mountains from 1985-1986. He later worked as an outdoor recreational planner, land manager and land use planner for the National Park Service, The Nature Conservancy and county government, respectively.

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BOOK

STEALING KABUL

Afghan politics, Karzai and U.S. tax dollars By Sarah Chayes

ust before dawn on July 25, 2010, an administrative assistant at the Afghan national security council named Muhammad Zia Salehi was led out of his home under arrest, on charges of selling his influence for the gift of a car valued around $20,000. Like income taxes in the Al Capone case, the bribery was just the crime that investigators could prove. In fact, Salehi appeared to be the bagman for a vast palace slush fund that President Hamid Karzai’s closest intimates controlled and used to buy alliances, votes, or silence. These discoveries had come to light as part of a sprawling investigation led by an old friend from Anti-Corruption Task Force days: sleepless, theatrically grumpy, meticulous Kirk Meyer of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, one of the most talented officers in the U.S. law enforcement arsenal. He had told us corruption was only the third priority of his Threat Finance Cell and the special Afghan police unit it mentored, the Sensitive Investigations Unit, below terrorist funding and drug money. True to its mandate, the Sensitive Investigations Unit had dug into the workings of a major Kabul-based hawala, a traditional money transfer operation, often used by extremists. Single threads soon lead to dense tangles. An unprecedented raid on the hawala’s offices in downtown Kabul reaped a huge trove of data. And the team struck a torrent of cash pumping out of Afghanistan’s top private financial institution, the Kabul Bank. The resulting sinkhole was nearly a billion dollars deep—the result of $100,000 MasterCards handed out to select officials, directors’ fat expense accounts, bribes for government tenders, and the kind of “non-reimbursable loans” that were then so common in Tunisia. Salehi’s extortion of a set of flashy

wheels was tangential to the Kabul Bank investigation. But the headquarters of General Stanley McChrystal and officials in Washington had asked Meyer to generate an anti-corruption test case, so his team had compiled watertight evidence. The arrest was a coup. Watching from the sidelines, I and other members of General David Petraeus’s civilian advisory team – which he had dubbed the Directed Telescopes – crowed. But before the sun set on that arrest, President Karzai had ordered Salehi’s release. The boss had protected his underling. The implicit promise that structured the kleptocratic system had held. Karzai was not bashful about his interference in the judicial process. “Absolutely I intervened. . . . I intervened very, very strongly,” he boasted to ABC’s This Week a month later. He was broadcasting the fact to members of his network—just as he had broadcast his promise not to remove any corrupt officials at that press conference after the arrest of the minor border police official the previous year. Karzai was advertising the strength of his protection guarantee. He cited the conditions of the operation against Salehi: This man was taken out of his house in the middle of the night by 30 Kalashnikov-toting masked men in the name of Afghan law enforcement, Karzai complained. This is exactly reminiscent of the days of the Soviet Union, where people were taken away from their homes by armed people in the name of the state and thrown into obscure prisons and in some kind of kangaroo courts, the president said. The Arrest Nothing of the sort had happened. What Karzai neglected to share with This Week was that he had authorized the arrest himself. I went over the sequence

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of events several times with Meyer, with the embassy legal attaché who had participated in meetings with Afghan officials, and with the FBI officer who was now mentoring the Major Crimes Task Force. Officers from that unit, which had developed a 2009 case against Border Police Chief Sayfullah, had carried out Salehi’s arrest. According to all those participants in the events, what had happened was this. Karzai, informed of his aide’s corruption, had demanded to see the evidence. Deputy U.S. Ambassador Anthony Wayne had played the tape of a judicially authorized wiretap for Afghan national security adviser Rangin Spanta. Salehi could be heard demanding the payoff. Meyer told me Spanta began to cry, exclaiming he would tell Karzai that not only should Salehi be dismissed, he should be arrested and prosecuted. With Karzai’s approval, the attorney general signed out an arrest warrant, and the interior minister—after double-checking with the palace—directed the Major Crimes Task Force to carry out the arrest. When the officers arrived at Salehi’s house, they did not storm it or break down his door. They called his cell phone number, identified themselves, and asked him to come out. Irate, Salehi phoned a different security agency, whose men rushed to the scene and exchanged shots with the MCTF but eventually retreated. Next, Salehi dialed up the interior minister, who explained to him that Karzai in person had approved the arrest, and that he had better surrender. But U.S. officials ignored these facts. As a way to allow President Karzai to “save face,” one of them later explained to me, they volunteered that the arrest had perhaps been a bit heavy-handed. U.S. law enforcement personnel who had been working the case, not to mention their Afghan protégés, were stung by the betrayal. “I have seen many a U.S. arrest that was far less polite than this one,” commented the FBI officer. Karzai began moving to shut down the two investigation units. Petraeus swung into action, mobilizing a broad-based international coalition in support of the police units, their funding,

and independence. It was masterful. Karzai backed off. And whirled around to attack the judicial branch instead. On “sovereignty” grounds, Britain was forbidden to provide top-up salaries to the vetted prosecutors who made up the attorney general’s anticorruption unit, cutting their take-home pay from $800 a month to $200. The two prosecutors on the Salehi case—one of them a woman standing about five-foot four—were demoted and reassigned, amid insulting rumors. “When we really needed help,” she told me later, “no one came. We were treated as if we were dispensable.” The deputy attorney general, who had bravely signed several anticorruption search and arrest warrants, was fired, accused of espionage, and had to flee briefly to Iran. In the face of this onslaught, the U.S. government took no meaningful action. Federal prosecutors assigned to mentor Afghan counterparts lodged protests and maintained hesitant contacts with their anti-corruption protégés, but they had no top-cover. No American official with clout stepped in to protect the exposed Afghan professionals the U.S. government had coaxed to the dangerous forefront of the battle against corruption. Members of the U.S. National Security Staff in charge of the Afghanistan file “were the worst of the cockroaches,” Meyer growled later. “They just scuttled for the dark corners.” For many Afghans, the passivity of U.S. officials could only add up to complicity. “People think you want the corruption,” a Kandahar friend remarked. In the following months, the Salehi case file was seized by palace officials, and the charges were dropped. Anticorruption prosecutors were deluged with inconsequential cases, while significant prosecutions stalled. “What Karzai can do to me is 10 times worse than anything the United States can do,” the U.S. legal attaché recalled the chief of the AntiCorruption Unit telling him. “If I go against Karzai, what can you do to support me?” The Afghan interior ministry refused to authorize further SIU or MCTF investigations. “The investigators are trying to lower the bar, but it’s hard to get it low enough,” the MCTF’s FBI mentor told Admiral Mullen

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later that year. “We can’t find a fish little enough to go after.” The palace prevails Events moved so quickly in the first weeks after Salehi’s arrest, there was no way to put all the pieces together. Looking back, I recognize that wishful thinking must have bleared my eyes to the obvious — to the fundamental weakness of U.S. resolve. Decision makers, including civilians, still saw corruption as secondary to the immediate task of fighting insurgents. The basic equation had not penetrated: that corruption was, in fact, driving the insecurity we were struggling to quell. The Directed Telescopes were preparing for a major event we had advised Petraeus to host, what was called a “commanders’ conference.” It would be his first chance since assuming leadership of the multinational force to meet his key subordinates and share with them his vision for the campaign. It was the moment, we believed, for him to spell out his revolutionary new governance strategy. All the division commanders and their relevant senior staff were summoned to Kabul on August 14. The Directed Telescopes were hard at work designing slides for Petraeus’s presentation. As the helicopters began to touch down on the eve of the meeting, grumbling about the governance strategy grew audible. We heard of conversations at the operational command headquarters lasting late into the night. The division commanders needed some clarity, confirmation from Petraeus that his oddlooking collection of civilian advisers had indeed been speaking for him. They got the opposite. To our appalled shock, as Petraeus worked through his presentation the next day, he dwelled not on our slides— which signaled a new approach that was counter-cultural in the military and would require patient explanation—but rather on slides telling the officers to do what they already knew how to do best: kill the enemy. Pausing to expand on the contents, Petraeus even argued against some of our slides. We had no idea what had happened.

Not till the spring of 2013 did the penny drop as to what had prompted Petraeus’s sudden change of heart in the summer of 2010— and ultimately, what made the U.S. government shrink from addressing corruption in Afghanistan. On April 28, Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times reported that the CIA had been paying millions of dollars per year, in cash, to President Karzai. Toward the end of his article was the nugget of information that told the whole story. The CIA’s bagman was Muhammad Zia Salehi—that aide to Karzai who had been arrested, and then quickly released, in the summer of 2010. U.S. officials had walked into a circular firing squad. Salehi, the subject of the U.S. government’s corruption test case, was also the U.S. government’s intermediary for cash payments to Karzai. The choice of this target may have been deliberate—an effort to flush out into the open the profound contradiction at the heart of U.S. policy. Two senior U.S. officials told me later that throughout the investigation of Salehi, the planning for the arrest, and his liberation within a few hours, CIA personnel had remained silent about their relationship with him. Even afterward, despite strong words at Principals’ Committee meetings , the CIA never provided the U.S. ambassador or the key cabinet secretaries with the names of the Afghans it was paying. The station chief in Kabul continued to hold private meetings with Karzai, with no other U.S. officials present. In other words, a secret CIA agenda— which involved enabling the very summit of Afghanistan’s kleptocracy—was in direct conflict with the anticorruption agenda. And with no one explicitly arbitrating this contradiction, the CIA’s agenda won out. After those first few weeks in command, Petraeus veered hard away from governance efforts and devoted himself to targeted killing, which he intensified considerably. Targeted killing of individual terrorist suspects is the special domain of the CIA, which Petraeus left Kabul to run—until his tenure there was cut short by an extramarital affair that had germinated in the Yellow

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Building at ISAF headquarters. The Obama administration, sickened by the cost in lives and resources that the counterinsurgency approach was exacting, and perhaps uncomfortable with the power and discretion that large-scale military operations place in the hands of the brass, turned increasingly toward special operations and drone warfare to counter security threats. Targeted, technologically advanced, secretive killing, over which the president had direct control, increased after 2010, spreading to Yemen and other theaters. But the point officials missed in making this shift—and in letting the priorities generated by this strategy trump governance objectives—is that targeted killings still represent a military response to a problem that is fundamentally political and economic in nature: a problem that is rooted in the conduct of government. The current U.S. approach sends a message, wittingly or not, to people who are often driven to violence by the abusively corrupt practices of their ruling cliques, and by frustration at seeing their legitimate grievances systematically ignored. The message seems to be: your grievances are, in fact, of no account. They will not be heard. That message holds out no recourse, no means of appeal. This article is excerpted from the book, Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, by Sarah Chayes and published by W. W. Norton & Company, New York and London in 2015. Chayes is a senior fellow in the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. She served as a special adviser to Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She was a broadcast journalist with National Public Radio, ran a non-profit company producing skin care products in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, and served in the Peace Corps in Morocco from 1984 to 1986.

COMMENT

NUCLEAR RISK

We must speak out for peace and against the perils of nuclear proliferation By Steve Buff According to the New York Times, before his inauguration President Trump tweeted on December 22 that the United States should greatly “strengthen and expand its nuclear capability.” His tweet appears to suggest an end to decades of efforts by presidents from both parties to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategies. Given the risks the Trump administration’s decision presents to the nation, I think it’s time we pull together to start a crucial NPCA affinity group devoted to peace and focused primarily on limiting the dangers of nuclear arms. The Peace Corps has done a great deal to promote friendship, good will and internationalism. But given the crises of our times and the existence of a permanent war economy, with consequent spending cuts on vital social needs, we Returned Peace Corps Volunteers have much to do at home to oppose war and promote the fruits of peace. To move forward, after forming an affinity group and selecting our issues, we should join with other peace organizations and progressive groups as important allies. The nuclear threat The most pressing issue, of course, is the threat of nuclear war. Former Secretary of Defense William Perry, who, remarkably, is campaigning with other former high officials to eliminate nuclear arms, believes that we are now at a more dangerous point of nuclear confrontation than during the Cold War. While these dangers are paramount, the nuclear regime is also a drag on the economy. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that between 2015 and 2024, the administration's plans for nuclear forces would cost $348 billion, an average of about $35 billion a year.

It is our duty to help awaken the citizenry to these dangers, as well as to the disproportionate costs. In addition to anti-war activity, we can help educate citizens to reverse the cruel distortion of priorities caused by defense spending. The defenses expenses shortchange our way of life. Two-thirds of the federal budget is mandatory expenses covering our obligations to programs like social security and Medicare. The other third covers discretionary expenses that includes defense spending which in our 2015 budget included more than $598 billion for defense. That’s 54 percent of all

those defense dollars could have created 7.13 million clean energy jobs for a year, provided healthcare for 148 million lowincome adults for a year, or offered wind power for all the U.S. households for almost five years. If in that year we had only cut the expenses for the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons system—the troubled and over-budgeted LockheedMartin F-35—we could have funded the equivalent of more than 21 Peace Corps agencies. The Peace Corps budget at that time was $380 million, while the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter totaled $8.3 billion. Similar tradeoffs could be made between excessive defense expenditures and any non-defense program and would be beneficial to the nation. But why are Defense expenditures so high? Too many bases abroad, three ill-conceived and seemingly interminable wars—Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq—unneeded weapon systems, and nuclear armaments. This staggering waste largely reflects the clout of defense

Senator Ed Markey and Representative Ted Liu have recently introduced Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 that would prohibit the President from launching a first nuclear strike without a declaration of war by Congress. U.S. government discretionary spending and an amount just about equal to the combined military spending of China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, U.K., India, France and Japan. We could have an effective military at a far lower cost but Congress has avoided serious effort to control the military budget. Rather than recognizing the extreme bloat, President Trump wants to enlarge and “rebuild” the military still further. Tradeoffs Those numbers come from a 2014 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, the National Priorities Project, which argues that we

suppliers such as Northrop-Grumman, and Halliburton, rather than military necessity, the corporate lobby President Eisenhower warned against 60 years ago. It is not too late to turn defense funding to the real needs of our commonweal. We can resist the Trump administration and use many opportunities to help educate our fellow citizens. If we can learn to share global burdens through diplomacy we can reduce military appropriations and make serious investment in education, health, job creation, rebuilding infrastructure, ameliorating poverty, and most importantly, halting climate change. The present approach is bankrupting

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us and siphoning resources away from the public the very investments that sustain civilization. Clearly, we need more balanced priorities to rejuvenate and heal our nation. RPCVs, through the peace and progressive movements, could help press for these needed fundamental transformations. North Korea’s missile threat The Clinton Administration reached an agreement with North Korea that it would freeze its existing nuclear program and accept international inspection of all facilities. This agreement was dashed, however, when the George W. Bush administration labeled North Korea, Iran and Iraq as part of “The Axis of Evil.” Since then North Korea has felt embattled and is developing the capability to fit a nuclear device on an intercontinental ballistic missile that could eventually launch a nuclear strike on any other nation. The Trump administration has recently spoken of possible military or non-military efforts to halt further nuclear development by North Korea. Our existential predicament, however, extends beyond the decisions of President Trump: no President, or any single individual, should have the authority to start a nuclear war. RPCVs can effectively lobby our representatives and convince our fellow citizens to reduce the multiple threats and costs of nuclear war. Fortunately, Senator Ed Markey and Representative Ted Liu have recently introduced Restricting the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017 that would prohibit the President from launching a first nuclear strike without a declaration of war by Congress. This eminently sensible step would prevent any president from unilaterally initiating a nuclear war. If we had an RPCV affinity group devoted to peace we could join the coalition of The Ploughshares Fund, Peace Action and 15 other leading peace and progressive groups to support, explain and publicize this world-changing bill. The coalition has already gathered 500,000 signatures in support of the bill. The treaty with Iran And we can win, as we did last year in

the battle over the Iran “deal”—a contest between diplomacy and probable war. Iran and the P5+1 nations—China, France, Germany, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S.— finalized a deal on July 14, 2015, that will verifiably block Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons development and guard against a clandestine weapons program. The peace movement, although outspent by their opponents, helped to lobby Congress to help win confirmation of the deal. Iran is apparently abiding by the agreement, even pouring concrete into their Arak reactor core so it is no longer capable of producing fissile material. Thanks in no small part to the peace movement, peace and diplomacy won! I understand that Friends of Iran,

In other words, a secret CIA agenda which involved involved enabling the very summit of Afghanistan’s kleptocracy was in direct conflict with the anticorruption agenda. an NPCA affiliate, worked to support the treaty. In any case, the RPCV community should continue to be part of such efforts and victories. I’m sure you will agree that RPCVs have intelligence, political savvy, extensive international experience, and generous spirits. It is a perfect group from which to recruit those who can and will assist the peace movement as activists, lobbyists, and supporters. While many RPCVs are already addressing the problems of our times— climate change, development, inequality, health, human rights—we must also deal with the less recognized issues—war and militarism—inextricably bound up with these aforementioned problems. Therefore, I suggest that we meet face to face in D.C., form an affinity group and have it approved by the NPCA. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, for there are many active peace groups

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lobbying who are vital parts of the peace and progressive movements. We can form a working relationship with these experienced groups. “May the conscience and the commonsense of the peoples be awakened,” said Albert Einstein, “so that we may reach a new stage in the life of nations, where people will look back on war as an incomprehensible aberration of their forefathers." However lengthy or difficult this path may be, it is a fitting and noble project for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. If you are interested in working for peace and resisting President Trump’s policy, please write to me at evandstevebuff@verizon.net.

Steve Buff taught school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 1964 to 1966, sociology at three colleges served as Peace Corps assistant inspector general. He is coordinator of the Howard County, Maryland, chapter of Peace Action and a member of the Baltimore steering committee of J Street seeking a twostate settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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