Archiving Your Peace Corps Experience

There is a special Peace Corps archival unit at American University in Washington DC. As we are all aging and we have to decide what to do with our old PC letters/notes/photos/training documents/newsletters etc--if your grandkids don't want them, and you don't want to trash them---- then send them, with a summary explanatory note identifying time and place and names of those pictured if possible to the archives to the following:

Ms. Leslie Nellis

Associate Archivist--University Library Special Collections

4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW  Washington DC   20016-8046

Phone  202 885 3200    

 american.edu/library

Ms. Nellis will send you a letter acknowledging the donation.  If you have any questions, call or email her.

Treasure Trove of News Stories about Peace Corp in India

Enjoy diving into this message thread containing many news stories of Peace Corps in India.

2021 Charities Update 4 of 4: Homes of Hope

Throughout India, Homes of Hope has transformed the lives of thousands of orphaned, abandoned, and trafficked girls.

Since 2016, Homes of Hope has rescued girls from the horrors of the street. In our Homes of Hope they are loved, fed nutritious food, they go to school. They are able to regain their childhood as well as prepare themselves for the future. Girls who once came to us in ragged clothes and sadness in their souls are now nurses and office workers, fashion designers and computer programmers. They have broken the cycle of poverty.

Currently there are 27 Homes of Hope – either completed or under construction – throughout India.  More than 2,000 girls live in a Home of Hope. Find out more and donate at www.homesofhopeindia.org

Homes of Hope India

1413 Hawthorne Road

Wilmington NC 28403

(910) 538 4544

2021 Charities Update 3 of 4: Sanjeevini Trust

Dear Friends,

The Sanjeevini Trust is a charitable foundation operating in Sirwar Taluka in Karnataka India.  It is devoted to providing health services and health education to poor villagers in the area. The centerpiece of its work is the Willie James and Mike Quaid Ambulance Service, named after two former India-60 Peace Corps Volunteers who served in that area. The Sanjeevini Trust was started by Gnanmithra Jettappa, a wise and talented man with a 4th grade education and a great deal of empathy for those who are still struggling in a rapidly changing India. The Sanjeevini Trust and its Ambulance Service is supported by former Peace Corps Volunteers and their relatives and friends.

2021 has been a challenging year for everyone - India included.  In spite of the ravages of Covid 19 in the Winter months, when everything was “locked down” for a second time, Covid 19 has miraculously subsided in India for now. In Winter and early Spring last year, there were so many Covid deaths, the ambulance took over 30 dead bodies to be buried by an excavator in a mass grave. Now in all of Karnataka, there are less than 200 positive cases a day or a 0.31% positivity rate and almost everything is almost back to normal for the time being.

Altogether to date in 2021 over 450 patients have been taken to hospitals by the ambulances. Over 200 of the cases were Covid 19 patients. The others included heart attacks, delivery problems and road accidents.  The old ambulance took all the Covid patients to the nearby hospital in Raichur and the new ambulance was used to take the most serious patients to hospitals in Bangalore.  Because the old ambulance was used so much, Gnanmitra had it totally renovated during 2021.

Please see this video made by Vijaya, Gnanmithra’s son, to see the wonderful work of the Sanjeevini Trust and the Willie James/Mike Quaid Ambulance Service.

The best news is that with the reduction in Covid 19, Gnanmithra is expanding the Sanjeevini Trust’s health educational programs to include the benefits and techniques of ecological agriculture with a major focus on convincing farmers to stop burning their crop residues.  Burning of crop residues creates heavy smoke that mixes with diesel exhaust and coal powered power plant emissions, resulting in a deadly smog in many rural areas (as well as New Delhi - where schools are closed due to the toxic air).  His first meeting with farmers in a nearby village was an outstanding success - with all of them committing to find alternatives to burning crops and showing interest in shifting to using fewer chemical fertilizers and pesticides on their crops.

During the coming year, Gnanmithra plans more of these ecological agriculture educational sessions, along with resuming the eye camps and other health education programs, if Covid permits. The ambulances are crucial to the success of these programs too, as they are  used to announce the meetings with their speaker system and to bring the AV equipment to the meeting sites.

Gnanmithra and the Sanjeevini Trust are grateful for any support you may provide and wish you a wonderful holiday season and new year!

Contributions to the Sanjeevini Trust and the Willie James and Mike Quaid Ambulance Service of the  Sanjeevini Trust can be made to:

The Ecological Development Foundation, Inc

18991 Park Commons Drive 

Bend, Oregon, 97703

The Ecological Development Foundation, Inc is a 501(c)3 founded by my wife and myself to support this work, and all contributions are tax deductible as provided by law.

Best wishes,

Joe Emerson, India 38

2021 Charities Update 2 of 4: Father Fleming Foundation

Tom Bryak and Gerry Nelson, India 125 volunteers, provide the following background for the Father Fleming Foundation….

Tom, who married an Indian gal, had been back to India many times, but I had not been back until we returned together in 1993, twenty years after having left our India 125 Science Teachers Workshop program. Amazingly most of the people we had known were still alive at that time. I did write a book about this trip and the people we had worked with (The Return) self-published in 1997. Much of the book speaks about Father Anthony (Tony) Fleming, a catholic priest we met and worked with when we were PCVs. At that time, he was doing a lot of work with leper colonies in Orissa. He was an amazing individual and became a good friend.  Tragically, he died in 1997, during a 50^th reunion trip to his seminary in Chicago. Tony did receive a copy of The Return before his death, which I was happy about, since the book talks about his work and life.

After his death we returned to India and started the Father Fleming Foundation (FFF). Copies of my book were sold with earnings going to FFF. FFF helps fund an Indian NGO based in Bargarh, Orissa, called Vikas Deepti.  With the help of the Bishop of Sambalpur and a priest by the name of Father John Maliekal, Vikas Deepti has drilled wells and started a cooperative loan program where lepers can borrow money interest free, only paying back the principle. Through this program the lepers have become entrepreneurs in raising and selling pigs & goats, working as rickshaw wallas, and other endeavors. FFF also has procured medicines which have nearly eradicated leprosy in this part of India. In 2006 the FFF also started a housing program that helped get the lepers out of their hovels and into homes free of rats and rain. Today the leper villages are some of the most immaculate villages in Orrisa.  Leper children have now been integrated into the public school system and the stigma of leprosy lessened

Since leprosy has waned, the primary focus of Vikas Deepti has shifted to caring for the tremendous number of handicapped children of the area (although there is still care and medication given to the leper colonies). A rehabilitation and prosthetic center for crippled children has been established where they are given physical therapy, regular schooling, and teaching in a trade they can use to make a living. There is an outreach program giving training in nutrition and hygiene to families and children in over 1000 villages.  All of this work continues, and we are very grateful for the continued contributions of FOI to the FFF. Tony looks down from above and is pleased and adds his thanks.

Please send donations to Gerry Nelson, 2870 D. Rd, Bark River, MI. 49807.  Thank you.

Sincerely, Tom Brayak and Gerry Nelson