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Projects

Projects:

As a partnership comprised of similarly motivated and experienced individuals and organizations, the Peace Corps Alliance for Intercultural Understanding has reached out in support of numerous local, national and cause-related RPCV groups. Our most urgent current request involves supporting an advocacy project of the PCIA, the Peace Corps Iran Association. (www.peacecorpsiran.org) Additionally, the Alliance strongly supports the local, national and international efforts of the Peace Corps Community for Refugees. (www.pcc4refugees.org

Please consider visiting the websites of these active RPCV groups and lend your support to these two important outreach initiatives. 

Additionally, our members include RPCVs from numerous countries of service. Most notable among these are Friends of Afghanistan, Friends of Morocco, and Friends of Pakistan, which can be viewed at, afghanconnections.org, friendsofpakistanusa.org and friendsofmorocco.org, respectively.

Also consider becoming familiar with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

 

Educate:

You can help promote intercultural understanding by learning more about US Teacher of the Year, Mandy Manning and her advocacy for immigrants and refugees. To implement the Third Goal Action Agenda, please consider the following:

•    Encourage your RPCV group to develop a Third Goal agenda modeled on Mandy’s personal example by reaching out to your community Rotary clubs and college Rotaract or high school Interact clubs along with high school service organizations as well as faith-based and humanitarian organizations.

•    Contact your local “Volags,” the volunteer agencies that assist people displaced by violence and war and organize a support task group.

•    Read Mandy’s inspiring story (http://neatoday.org/2018/04/23/2018-national-teacher-of-the-year-mandy-manning/) then contact your local media and ask for radio, television and print coverage of Mandy’s inspirational calling. 

•    Consider organizing a coalition of concerned groups and individuals and invite Mandy to come to your town or city and share her motivational outreach message.  Her contact person at the not-for-profit organization that schedules her presentations is jessie.gold@ccsso.org. Discuss the details of Mandy’s visit with Jessie, your coalition may have to contribute to cover program expenses.

Click here to learn more about Mandy Manning’s formative interaction with members of America’s most vulnerable and marginalized new residents. Mandy’s instructive skills and passionate personal advocacy has changed the direction of her students’ lives.

Advocate:

There are numerous ways for members of the Peace Corps Alliance for Intercultural Understanding to positively influence political, economic and social institutions. Advocacy efforts may be as simple as contacting your local media, writing an op-ed, or organizing a public speaking campaign. More aggressive advocacy might involve coordinating activities with attorneys and even filing amicus briefs. Perseverance, tenacity, and grit are the foundation stones for successful advocacy; make sure that your local, state and national representatives know that you are an ardent advocate for civil society and human equity and you can begin by contacting your congressional representatives. We make it easy; just click "Get Involved."

Organize:

Organize, our third pillar of action, in the context of the Peace Corps Alliance for Intercultural Understanding, is best defined as empowering a community with shared experiences, common aspirations and mutual requirements and helping them to recognize and address these ambitions and needs.  

Whether we were fully aware of the special niche that we occupied during our Peace Corps service to our nation, we were all, ambassadors of goodwill, advocates for civil society and coordinators of American soft diplomacy in a foreign land. It is this call to organize around the enduring ideals of American exceptionalism in pursuit of defending the universal standards of a civil society that we call on the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of America to join again in defense of the principles that animated our Peace Corps service.