Leslie Clark and the Nomad Foundation are putting together a festival on a ranch in the hills above Ojai, California to help raise money for the Center for Nomadic Life.
The Center for Nomadic Life is designed to meet the basic needs of nomads living near Ingall as their life becomes increasingly challenging. Tickets are still available at the Nomadic Festival web site.
Come spend the day enjoying art, exhibitions, food, music, and more, all for a great cause!
Former Peace Corps director Jim Bullington has released a book about his service in Niger. In Adventures in Service with Peace Corps in Niger Jim gives the reader “an informed perspective on poverty, development, politics, culture, and security” in our favorite region of the Sahel.
Come check out this and other books in the Books section of our web site.
Come visit our photos page to see Niger captured through the eyes of different photographers.
“Womanhood” – by Irene Abdou
This week we’re featuring terrific new photographs by Irene Abdou, an RPCV who served in the Torodi/Tera area from 1995 to 1999.
Full URL: http://www.friendsofniger.org/photos
The Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project is a non-profit corporation created by the sister and mother of fallen Niger Peace Corps volunteer Jeremiah Mack to honor volunteers who died in service.
The site was created in 2004, and has grown to include fallen volunteers from many countries, including five PCV’s from Niger. In all, 271 volunteers have died while serving as volunteers.
In addition to the site, the organization seeks to create a permanent physical memorial honoring all fallen volunteers.
Full URL: http://www.fpvc.org
Those attending the 35th Anniversary of Peace Corps in Niger in July 1997 were moved to revitalize the almost defunct Friends of Niger group, which had been started by Meredith McGehee; a balance of $6,000 remained in a bank account in Washington, DC. The process took almost a year and now ten years later seems like a good time to look back and celebrate the accomplishments of Friends of Niger as Niger has just celebrated the 45th anniversary of Peace Corps in Niger.
Please have a look at our About FON page to see the list of our accomplishments, from the beginnings of the web site and newsletter, to famine relief and fund raising for a variety of projects,.
The link is also found at the top-left of every page on our site.
Full URL: http://www.friendsofniger.org/aboutfon
Peace Corps Week is an opportunity for returned Volunteers and their extended Peace Corps family – staff, friends and family of Volunteers, as well as friends of the Peace Corps – to partake in promoting cross-cultural understanding, world peace, and friendship by shining a spotlight on the important work of our Volunteers around the world and the continuing service that returned Volunteers bring to communities in the United States.
Go to the official Peace Corps Week web site:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.former.pcweek
In May of 2007 the USPS eliminated International Surface Mail which was used by many organizations and individuals to support important grass-roots humanitarian projects around the world.
Friends of Niger has joined the movement to petition the US Congress to reverse this change. Click here to see our open letter to the House Committee overseeing the Postal Service, pleading with them to reconsider this unfortunate change that will affect many small but important organizations.
On Friday, September 28th, and Saturday, September 29th, the EstroGenius Festival will present Voices Of Africa, a cross cultural collaboration with Peace Corps Niger, and Friends of Niger, to benefit the Young Girls Scholarship Program (YGSP). Voices of Africa features stories, poems, and songs written by Nigerien young women and performed by New York City teenagers at Manhattan Theatre Source.
The program was created by Ginger O’Neil, a former EstroGenius Festival volunteer currently serving a two year Peace Corps appointment in Niger, along with co-creators Michelle Stoner and Sheena Washington. Ginger teaches reading and writing along with music classes to young women in her village, Birni N’Gaoure, and throughout Niger. She has transcribed her students’ words, poems, and stories and sent them to New York City to be performed by teenage girls.
Voices of Africa performances will be held Friday, September 28 at 6:00 pm and Saturday, September 28 at 2:30 pm at Manhattan Theatre Source (177 MacDougal Street, between Waverly Pl. & W. 8th St; Subway: A/C/E or B/D/F/V to W 4th St.). Tickets are $15 at http://www.theatresource.org or (212) 260-4698.
All proceeds benefit the Young Girls Scholarship Program which provides academic scholarships to Nigerien girls.
Click here to see recent photos from the Young Girls Scholarship Program Annual Conference.
To read more about the Young Girls Scholarship Program, check out the August issue of the Camel Express (PDF, 1.9 MB).
Next week, Peace Corps’ Office of Domestic Programs, Returned Volunteer Services, will host an RPCV Career Planning Conference. The conference is a week-long series of free events focused on job searching and career resources for recently returned Peace Corps Volunteers.
The events will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 4 and will continue through Friday, Sept. 7. All sessions will be held in Washington, DC. Pre-registration is required for the sessions.
Click here for a flyer (PDF 502 KB) with more details about the event.
Please feel free to post the flyer and/or share copies of it with RPCVs in your network. More information on the RPCV Career Planning Conference can be found at http://www.peacecorps.gov/rpcv/events.
