NPCA

President is Trying to Cut Peace Corps Budget

President Trump’s budget proposes cutting Peace Corps. Congress has the power to appropriate and largely disregarded the Trump budget last year, but it takes energy and calls to Congress to remind them to support Peace Corps.

This from NPCA:

The President’s budget for fiscal year 2019 was released today and it proposes a budget of $396 million for the Peace Corps. After already requesting a $12 million cut in fiscal 2018—the deepest from a White House in over 40 years—the 2019 request further reduces Peace Corps’ budget by another $2 million.

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Peace Corps Community for the Support of Refugees

This is a guest post from Tad Baldwin, Atuntaqui/Quito 1963-65 who is our treasurer emeritus and long-time leader of Friends of Ecuador.

This new NPCA affiliate, Peace Corps Community in Support of Refugees, was formally accepted in the past month.  Tad Baldwin and a handful of Washington, DC based RPCVs have been working for the past year to connect with the nine non-profit State Department contract holders (who have hundreds of affiliates across the country coordinating refugee resettlement) to facilitate greater RPCV involvement in refugee issues.  A number of geographic groups and individuals have been active in this area for a number of years and more opportunities for service exist.  Those with relevant language skills are especially welcome.

The major initiative is support for refugee resettlement within the US.  The non-profits under contract (including the Catholic Bishops, the IRC, Lutherans, etc.) were anticipating a large jump in their work efforts…although those numbers may be halved if the president gets his way.  The roles involved welcoming new families, setting up apartments, helping with school and job searches, and the complex tasks involved in resettlement.  In the coming months information will appear on the NPCA website providing contact information for the local agencies coordinating this work across the country to  help those interested to take the preliminary connection step.  Small groups of RPCVs may chose to undertake all the required tasks on a shared responsibility basis.

A secondary purpose is to advocate for the refugees in our local communities, via churches, community groups and the press, especially in the face of alarming anti-immigrant executive statements.  A third purpose is support for refugees overseas, a more difficult long-distance task that is sidelined for the present.  Some RPCVs have been helping in the Greek Island refugee camps.

Some RPCVs from Ecuador have been involved in services to Columbian refugees and so have experience in this area.  All are now welcome to help! Contact info@pcc4refugees.org

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RPCV Legislative Victory – Equity Act

For female volunteers, one of the major risks of service is sexual assault and rape. Up until recently, volunteers who were raped and became pregnant had to pay for their own abortions if that is what they chose. This was unique to Peace Corps as military service members did not have to self-fund their own reproductive health in such horrible circumstances.

In December 2014, language to correct this imbalance was included in the appropriations bill: …

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Happy New Year 2015

Well, we had a busy end of 2014 so we were a little remiss in sending out some updates from Friends of Ecuador in the final months of the year. We’ve got a variety of stories for January, with new recipes from Mary, an RPCV’s TEDx talk, reports from Ecuador, and reports from NPCA on recent legislative success.

If you have any submissions, please get in touch with us at foe@friendsofecuador.dreamsites.io

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Peace Corps Connect – 2014 is coming to Nashville in June

Peace Corps Connect – 2014 is coming to Nashville! Join us June 19-21, 2014 for our third annual gathering, this year in Music City.

The National Peace Corps Association and the Tennessee Returned Peace Corps Volunteers invite you to join your fellow Peace Corps Community members to learn about the various ways our community continues to serve and educate the world around us. We also hope you’ll use the opportunity to tell your own stories, meet up with old friends and make new ones.

Get the details here

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