Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: When was the Peace Corps founded?
The program was established by Executive Order 10924, issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961 and authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961 with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). The act declares the program's purpose as follows:
O'Donnell accepted an assignment from the Peace Corps to be Country Director for South Korea and to start the program. O'Donnell's assignment was to establish educational programs in English, math, science, and physical education. "You went in and you sank or swam," says O'Donnell. O'Donnell found that managing Peace Corps Volunteers was different from working in private industry. "By and large, people who applied to the Peace Corps had energy and ability, and my biggest job was to point them in the right direction and then get the hell out of the way," O'Donnell says.
In 2005 NPCA scored a crucial and significant victory for the independence of the Peace Corps and safety of Volunteers when it successfully coordinated the removal of Peace Corps references from military recruitment legislation.
From 2007 through 2014, Hedrick led the U.S. Peace Corps efforts in malaria prevention across Africa and was the Country Director for the Peace Corps in Senegal. Hedrick grew Peace Corps/Senegal to become the largest Peace Corps program in the world at the conclusion of his tenure there. Hedrick led the development of the Peace Corps/Senegal Food Security initiative which is the largest USAID-funded Peace Corps food security project in the world under the global Feed the Future program. The Peace Corps program in Senegal under Hedrick's leadership was awarded the prestigious Learning Spotlight Award in 2010 for innovation in its training programs. In 2012, he was awarded the Director's Distinguished Service Award, the agency's highest honor, for his work in creating and coordinating the Peace Corps Stomping Out Malaria in Africa initiative. After partnering with Peace Corps Senegal in a major bed net distribution effort, the international NGO Malaria No More called Hedrick "part international diplomat, part community health worker, part development MacGyver" in its annual report. Hedrick promoted the concept of the "New Peace Corps," the professionalization of Peace Corps programming and service, including enhanced partnerships with USAID and other development institutions and improved utilization of technology.
Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is a nonprofit organization at the center of a vibrant and united community of 215,000 individuals who share the Peace Corps experience. The NPCA champions a lifelong commitment to Peace Corps ideals by connecting, engaging and promoting its members and member groups as they continue to make a difference in communities in the U.S. and around the world. NPCA is also dedicated to advocating for, contributing to, and supporting the betterment of the Peace Corps.
Blatchford's first priority was to broaden the pool of people joining the Peace Corps. "What's news is that farmers are going to join the Peace Corps, That's different from the public image of the Peace Corps Volunteer as a young liberal arts graduate right out of college," said Blatchford. "When I went overseas, I constantly heard the cry from governments, people of all stripes—villagers, village leaders, school teachers and people who worked with the Peace Corps or were in charge of programming them—that, we need a wide diversity of skills." The New York Times reported on September 23, 1969 at Blatchford's first press conference that the Peace Corps intended to recruit 500 union craftsmen, farmers, and vocational educational specialists.
Gearan was confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in as the 14th Director of the Peace Corps in September 1995 was director of the Peace Corps from 1995 to 1999. During Gearan's tenure as Peace Corps Director, the Peace Corps opened programs in South Africa, Jordan, Mozambique and Bangladesh and returned its volunteers to Haiti after a five-year absence. On March 1, 1996, the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Peace Corps, Gearan spoke about its relevance today: "You answered President Kennedy's call, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' You provided needed assistance to 130 countries around the globe, and you continue that service here at home."
Payton retained her connection to the Peace Corps. In 1981, she spoke about the contribution that volunteers had made around the world, "I think the whole idea of Peace Corps was brought home to me most recently last summer, when there was a terribly damaging hurricane in the Caribbean. Some of the Volunteers who had served with me there were collecting food, clothes and money to send back to the Islanders. Those Volunteers had left the Islands in 1967, but they still had a concern and care about those Islanders. That's what I think is at the heart of the Peace Corps, and that's why the Peace Corps is relevant today." Payton was awarded the Peace Corps Leader for Peace Award in 1988. In 2000, Payton attended the swearing in ceremony for Peace Corps Director Mark L. Schneider.
Abortion is also an issue for female Peace Corps volunteers. Women who have been raped in foreign countries while volunteering have wanted to get abortions. The low pay of Peace Corp volunteers combined with the expense of an abortion often makes obtaining one difficult.[102] Since 1979, it has been prohibited for federal funds to cover abortion costs for Peace Corps volunteers. Even in instances of life endangerment, rape and incest, volunteers are not financially covered. Volunteers do receive other forms of health care, including prescription medications, routine examinations, and emergency care, free of charge. These services are provided in-country through a Peace Corps Medical Officer. The abortion topic is very active in the Peace Corps, because when volunteers become pregnant for any reason, they can no longer be volunteers, and a significant number of them want to remain volunteers.[103]
Portions of the sometimes controversial expansion were successfully challenged by the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer community when former volunteers and the National Peace Corps Association raised objections to the continued inclusion of Peace Corps in the National Call to Service program, which had been used to allow military service members with at least three years and three months of military service completed, to finish their service obligation in the Peace Corps. Vasquez argued unsuccessfully for continued inclusion of the Peace Corps in that program, and the Peace Corps was removed from the National Call to Service program on December 22, 2005, when the United States Senate completed congressional action on the Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006.
In response to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, NPCA created the Emergency Response Network (ERN) of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers willing to respond to crises when needed. Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan subsequently modeled the Crisis Corps (later renamed Peace Corps Response) after this successful program.
The Peace Corps program was established by Executive Order 10924, which was issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961. The program was legislatively authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). Between 1961 and 2013, over 215,000 Americans joined the Peace Corps. The National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit organization for Peace Corps alumni, established the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to advocate for a commemorative to honor the mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded.
Vaughn joined the Peace Corps staff because "the Peace Corps idea had a great appeal to me. And the people I knew who were putting this idea into effect appealed to me even more." Shriver admired Vaughn's courage and felt anyone who would brave the ring with Sugar Ray Robinson would have the grit to fight for the Peace Corps in Latin America so when the Peace Corps decided to send volunteers to teach in Venezuela in 1963 despite the presence of Castro communists, Shriver made Vaughn his point man. "Shriver said, 'Show them your teeth, not your tail,'" Vaughn said. "Those teachers did great there. I'm sure it was his finest moment in the Peace Corps."
In 1971 the Peace Corps had lost its independent status when the Nixon Administration made it part of Action, an umbrella agency that included the Foster Grandparent Program, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), and the National Center for Service Learning. After the resignation of Peace Corps Director Carolyn R. Payton in 1978, President Jimmy Carter issued an executive order restoring some of its autonomy, but supporters of the agency continued to feel that under Action the Peace Corps suffered from a lack of visibility and identity. Matters came to a head in March, 1981 when Reagan appointed Thomas W. Pauken to be director of Action. Mr. Pauken served as a military intelligence officer in the Vietnam war. The Peace Corps has a prohibition against having former intelligence agents serve in the agency. Senator Alan Cranston of California led Democrats in drafting legislation to make the Peace Corps completely independent again, saying the Peace Corps could not operate with the necessary credibility and independence from the Government if it were organizationally under the direction of Mr. Pauken.
On May 23, 1969, Washington columnists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson charged that the CIA had partially financed Accion and that founding Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver had issued orders in 1962 to Latin American country directors not to associate with anyone from Accion because it was operating under the guidance of the CIA. Fifty Peace Corps staff members in Washington signed a statement asking Blatchford to "do whatever is necessary to dispel even the spectre of CIA involvement in the Peace Corps." Blatchford replied that he and Accion had never had any association whatever with the CIA or any other intelligence agency and that former Peace Corps directors Sargent Shriver and Jack Vaughn had both stated that the allegation of the 1962 order for Peace Corps to avoid contact with Accion was groundless. On May 31, 1969 Pearson and Anderson admitted in their column that their charge had been in error and retracted their charge. "The inference was based principally on the fact that Accion, founded by new head of the Peace Corps, Joe Blatchford had received $50,000 from the Donner Foundation, a reported CIA conduit," said the article. "We now find that there are two Donner Foundations, and that the William H. Donner Foundation, which contributed to Accion has never been a CIA conduit. We regret the error and further state that we are convinced the Peace Corps has no connection, direct or indirect, with the CIA."
In 2018, Peace Corps named UMW was a Top Volunteer-Producing Colleges and Universities for the tenth year in a row, ranking it fourth among small schools. A total of 261 UMW alumni have served in the Peace Corps since the agency's founding in 1961. UMW became a Peace Corps Prep Program partner in 2017.
In 1976, Deborah Gardner was found murdered in her home in Tonga, where she was serving in the Peace Corps. Dennis Priven, a fellow Peace Corps worker, was later charged with the murder by the Tonga government.[29] He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was sentenced to serve time in a mental institution in Washington D.C. Privan was never admitted to any institution, and the handling of the case has been heavily criticized. The main criticism has been that the Peace Corps seemingly worked to keep one of its volunteers from being found guilty of murder, due to the reflection it would have on the organization.[30]
His public service career began as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru, where during 1965 and 1966 he spent 18 months in a Peruvian slum running a food distribution program and setting up credit unions. He called the experience a defining moment and said his experience in the Peace Corps helped him learn how to adapt. "When I was a Peace Corps volunteer, it was just a different culture," McPherson said. "I found I couldn't be a gringo and be effective. It's just a matter of asking people what they want to get done, finding out what the formal and informal rules are and figuring out ways to do things differently, while doing practical work in that environment. But that process was a challenge."
Peace Corps Response, formerly named the Crisis Corps, was created by Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan in 1996.[58] Gearan modeled the Crisis Corps after the National Peace Corps Association's successful Emergency Response Network (ERN) of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers willing to respond to crises when needed. ERN emerged in response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.[59] On November 19, 2007 Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter changed Crisis Corps's name to Peace Corps Response.[60]
The National Peace Corps Association is an American nonprofit organization for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. It works to support Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, encourage lifelong practice of the ideals of the Peace Corps, and serves as an advocacy organization to support and improve the Peace Corps.
WorldView, a magazine of news and comments about the Peace Corps world, is published four times a year by NPCA. Each issue provides a Peace Corps perspective to global issues by featuring articles by and about Peace Corps Volunteers, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and people who "share the global values of the Peace Corps experience".
P. David Searles in his book "The Peace Corps Experience: Challenge and Change, 1969-1976" says that Blatchford's own assessment of Nixon's support 25 years later is that President Nixon did lose some of his early enthusiasm for the Peace Corps as a result of what Nixon thought of as widespread hostility to the President from Peace Corps Volunteers. However Baltchford also contends that Nixon originally gave more support to the Peace Corps than any President other than Kennedy. Blatchford also credits Republicans in the Senate like Barry Goldwater and Charles Percy for supporting the Peace Corps when Democrat William Fulbright tried to cut the Peace Corps' budget in 1969. Blatchford did sense hostility to the Peace Corps from some of the president's advisors, especially Ehrlichman and Patrick Buchanan, but says it did not hamper his work.
From 1961 until 1963, Fuchs was the first Peace Corps director in the Philippines. He later wrote a book, "Those Peculiar Americans: The Peace Corps and American National Character", about his experiences with the Peace Corps. Fuchs later founded the Commonwealth Service Corps in Massachusetts, a domestic service organization similar to the Peace Corps.
Vaughn's connection with the Peace Corps began in 1961 when Peace Corps founding director Sargent Shriver came to Senegal where Vaughn was serving with USAID. "There were 4,000 volunteers signing up a day for the Peace Corps, and countries weren't asking for them. So Shriver came over to meet the Senegalese," says Vaughn. "I was the only one who spoke French.
I went up to meet Shriver and his lawyer in their hotel room. They did not have on a stitch of clothing. We all sat down and had a conversation. They said they had never seen heat like that. It was 120 degrees and no air conditioning." Vaughn's boxing prowess and prior experience as a prize fighter paid off when Sargent Shriver decided to recruit Vaughn. "I was recruited by Sargent Shriver because I had been in the ring with Sugar Ray Robinson," Vaughn said. "He loves jocks." Coates Redmond described Vaughn as "barely medium height, slight of build, with ginger-colored hair and a 1940s moustache to match, quietly spoken and careful of gesture" in her history of the early years of the Peace Corps, "Come As You Are". Before his appointment to the Peace Corps, Vaughn met with President Kennedy who didn't like Vaughn's mustache and told him he would have to shave it off if he wanted to work in the Peace Corps. Vaughn refused to shave the mustache but got the appointment anyway.
The Peace Corps Commemorative is a proposed national commemorative work in Washington, D.C. honoring the historic founding of the Peace Corps and the enduring American ideals that motivated its founding and are expressed in Peace Corps service. The Peace Corps is a volunteer-sending program run by the United States government. Congress authorized the Peace Corps Commemorative in January 2014.