February 2023 Newsletter

FRIENDS OF INDIA

 

NEWSLETTER

February 2023

 

 

 

Statement from the Board

 

Dear Friends of India,

 

The Friends of India that you used to know through an annual report that came in the mail is now being brought to you via e-mail.

 

With the sad loss of our founders Jack Slattery and George Nepert over the last two years, we have re-established the organization as a 501(c)(3) charity, are re-building our website (https://ganga633.squarespace.com) and re-invigorating our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=friends%20of%20india%20(returned%20peace%20corps%20volunteers).  

 

We have a new leadership cadre (signatories below) and are creating a new membership list, for future contact via e-mail.   We are members of the National Peace Corps Association.  We will not be collecting dues, but welcome contributions for operating expenses and for charitable contributions for our ‘Lucky Dozen’ charity and other India charities shown on our website.

 

We are also seeking to be a repository of Peace Corps/India’s history in collaboration with American University’s Peace Corps archive.   If your group has a website or blog that is not listed on our website home page, we’ll be happy to add it.

 

For further information or offers to help, please contact any of our Board members and advisers listed at the bottom of this document.  If you would like to be deleted from our mailing list, please email one of those officers.

 

Our Mission Statement

 

The organization, Friends of India,  founded by Peace Corps volunteers who had served in India, exists for the following purposes: 

1) To provide a network of communication and action for those RPCVs who continue to have an interest in India.

2) To record and foster a history of  the India/Peace Corps partnership and program which flourished between 1961 and 1976.

3) To encourage all FOI members to donate their memorabilia and oral histories to Peace Corps repositories 

4) To periodically organize gatherings of India RPCVs and their families in reunions or other exchange events.

5) To identify and share with FOI members interesting information, media links and articles on current events and trends in India of today.

6) To  encourage all members to continue their service to our beloved India,by financially supporting our 'Lucky Dozen' charity and other charities identified under "Charities" on our website.

7) To maintain an informative liaison with the Embassy of India

 

 

Status of Our Charitable Endeavors

 

FOI has made donations to six local-level charities for helping the youth of India.  Four remain operational (Lucky Dozen, Sanjeevini Trust, Father Fleming Foundation, and Homes of Hope.)  Sadly, the South Asia Pure Water Initiative and Forgotten Children of Tamil Nadu have ceased operations.  Updates will be posted on the FOI web site (http://ganga633.squarespace.com/) under the “Charities” heading.  The FOI will continue to fund the ‘Lucky Dozen’ charity.  Donations to the other charities can be made using their information on our website

 

The Lucky Dozen is a 501(c)3 charity and is  directly created, funded, and supported by thedonors of the Friends of India beginning in 2008. The goal is to provide educationalopportunities for the very poor and give hope to the marginalized students. The pandemic caused untold and extensive disruption to the LuckyDozen students; e.g., no means to attend, discontinued schooling, loss of loved ones, and so forth.  With the 2021 passing of George Nepert (co-founder and treasurer of the Lucky Dozen as well as Friends of India) the funding process was suspended.  Early in 2022 students returned to school (in fact, finals were concluded in June) and funding resumed. The picture, looking forward, is much brighter with more effort being put forth.

 

Sanjeevini Trust: Founded by Joe Emerson, India ’38, it is located in Sirwar, Karnataka. Managed by Mr. Gamitra Jettapa, it provides medical treatment to the poor, free eye and dental clinics, preventive health screenings, education on cancer, heart disease and diabetes in villages. It also provides food and shelter to disabled villagers, conducts tailoring classes, group marriages for the poor, and has an ambulance service to transport the sick and injured to Raichur hospital. 

 

Father Fleming Foundation:  The Father Fleming Fund (FFF) is a US-registered charity established by two Orissa PCVs, Gerry Nelson and Tom Brayak, who worked with Father Tony Fleming in Orissa assisting leper colonies and poor and handicapped children. He died in 1997, having spent his entire priesthood in Orissa, just a month shy of 50 years.  He was an extraordinary man, with hundreds of connections with government officials, local politicians, businessmen, etc.  When he died, all this was lost, and the funding that went along with it. It was with this in mind that Gerry & Tom started the FFF.   FFF helps fund an Indian charity, ‘Vikas Deepti’ (Promotion of Light) based in Bargarh, Orissa, India, presently under the direction of a Catholic priest, Fr. Anuranjan. It is committed to aid to the disabled.

 

Home of Hope (https://www.homeofhopeindia.org/what-we-do/) is a 501(c)3 charity that was founded in 2006 by RPCV Paul Wilkes and is based in Wilmington, NC. It is a thriving organization with over 27 operating projects. Over 3,000 girls have found safe refugee in their nine Homes of Hope.

 

Please see the FOI website for more information about these charities, including how to donate.                                                                        

 

History of Peace Corps/India  1961-76

 

When President Kennedy asked Sargent Shriver to implement the vision of an American Peace Corps working throughout the world, India was very much on their minds.

 

Shriver visited India in 1961 on his first trip as Peace Corps Director.    He made an enthusiastic presentation to Prime Minister Nehru of his young volunteers making a difference in rural India.   Nehru welcomed a small initial group to come to northern India but famously, and dryly, cautioned Shriver: “please do not be surprised if, when the volunteers leave, Punjab is little changed.” He added “I think your Americans can learn much from our Punjabi farmers.”

 

Nehru understood that the value of the Peace Corps would not be solely as a program of rural development, but also as an opportunity for Americans and Indians to get to know each other and work together on a personal level.   He personally welcomed the volunteers of “India-1,” the first group of volunteers, when they arrived in Delhi in December 1961.

 

By the mid-60s, with enthusiastic support from President Lyndon Johnson, eager to expand ties with India, the Peace Corps program there became the largest in the world, with over 1,500 volunteers in country by 1968.

 

By the time the program ended in 1976, a total of 4,325 American volunteers had their lives immeasurably enriched by the experience of living in India and working with Indian colleagues and friends.    Their projects included subjects as different as science teaching in Andhra Pradesh, agricultural extension work in villages of Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, poultry production in Kerala and Punjab, nurse training in the Nilgiri Hills, beekeeping in the Kulu Valley, small industries and engineering in Uttar Pradesh, health and nutrition training in Andhra Pradesh, school kitchen construction in Karnataka and university teaching in Hyderabad.  

 

Many of the volunteers, on their return home, maintained ties to the villages and towns where they had lived and to the friends they had made.     “Friends of India,” an organization of 400 former volunteers, promotes those continuing ties and, with member contributions, supports charities in some of the villages where volunteers had worked.

 

Notable volunteers:

·      Lillian Carter, the mother of President Jimmy Carter served in Maharashtra from 1965-67 and forever put to rest the notion that Peace Corps was an opportunity only for young people.

·      Ron Tschetter, also in Maharashtra, later became President George W. Bush’s Peace Corps Director

·      Nomenee Robinson, uncle of Michelle Obama, was part of India-1 in the Punjab.

·      Tom Wolf, former governor of Pennsylvania was in Orissa working on farm mechanics.

 

 

An Appeal

 

We recently received the following request on our website.  Does anyone know the whereabouts of RPCV Richard Scarborough? We have subsequently learned that he was in Andhra Pradesh, possibly in the village of Dimili. 

 

Hi Sir/Ma’am, My name is Srikanth Prabha. I am trying to locate one of Dad's long lost friends, Richard (Dick) Scarborough. Apparently he served as a volunteer for Peace Corps visiting India between 1968-71/72. My Dad's name is Prabha Bala Bhaskara Rao. My dad is 77 and he says Richard (who used to go by the name Dick) would be of similar age. My dad was fresh out of college when he met Dick, who was instrumental in encouraging my dad to become a school teacher. Being two young men with full of ideas, they both developed science laboratories with improvised apparatus. My dad went to serve as a teacher and winning the Best Teacher award for his service. He remembers Dick everyday and misses his dear old fiend. If by any chance happen to know Dick, kindly let us know. I am trying to reunited my Dad with his long lost friend.

I currently live in Washington and my dad is expecting to visit USA for the first time and I am hoping to reunite my dad and Dick. Kindly help.  

 

 

Playing a Leadership Role

 

Our current board is temporary; we’d like to know who is interested in assisting with the organization’s management duties.  We are looking for a new president, someone to help with financial responsibilities, a person to manage our membership list, and a new or auxiliary webmaster.   If you are interested – or wish to nominate someone – please contact one of the leadership cadre below.  

 

In-person reunions

 

We’d like to know about your group reunions and hope to have another all-India gathering if we can manage logistics.   Is there anyone who would like to take on this task?  

The most recent reunion of which we are aware was India-48 which has been having annual get-togethers since 2017.   They met in Sepember 2022 in Bristol, Rhode Island, commemorating their initial training in Woodleaf, California, for an agriculture extension program in Coimbatore and Trichinopoly districts in then Madras State. 

Some Useful Links

 

There are many RPCV internet sites.

 

The National Peace Corps Association is the umbrella organization bringing together country affiliates such as Friends of India.  They are at https://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/cpages/home

 

Harvard University’s Kennedy School has an archive of Peace Corps oral histories and other archival material, searchable by country. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/USPC

 

American University is becoming a collection site for a future Peace Corps museum.  They are interested in Peace Corps memorabilia and memories (contact them before sending items). https://www.american.edu/cas/museum/2021/peace-corps-at-60.cfm

           

The University of Kentucky has a growing number of Peace Corps oral histories and is actively encouraging volunteers to provide their own histories. https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7bdw2tkjfs9

 

 This site stopped adding information years ago, but is an archive with much interesting info.  (http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2496.html)

 

Here is a link to Peace Corps writers (not just from India) http://peacecorpsworldwide.org

 

Though not a Peace Corps site, www.villagesquare.in compiles information about rural development in today’s India, a topic of interest to many of our members. 

 

 

Friends of India officers and advisors

 

John Chromy, President (interim)             jchromy42@gmail.com

Roger Olson, Treasurer                                     bitsandbytes@cox.net

Donald Camp, Secretary                                     donacamp@aol.com 

Bob Cohen, Advisor                                     bobcohen@ivs.edu

Brent Cromley, Advisor                                    brentcromley@gmail.com

Roger Engstrom, Advisor                                     iowaraju@gmail.com

Tondalaya Gillespie, Advisor                         tondalaya2008@gmail.com 

Tom Howard, Advisor                                     tfh413@gmail.com

Tom Roschke, Advisor                                    tomroschke@aol.com