LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001

In This Issue

u HIV/AIDS Initiative Update

u AIDS in Malawi
u Orphans in Swaziland
u Reflections on

NewsLetter Zimbabwe
u LGB RPCV News
u 40th Anniversary Events

May 2001

ay’s newsletter highlights both AIDS and Africa. qWe begin with an update

M of last year’s Peace Corps HIV/AIDS Initiative. qA Health Generalist Vol-

unteer in Malawi reports on the tough AIDS situation there. q Doug Long
describes his efforts to help AIDS orphans in Swaziland. q Recently returned Volun-
teer, Jeff Maggioli reflects on what he learned from Zimbabwean men. qWe’ll be part
of Peace Corps’ 40th anniversary celebration in Washington D.C. in September.

The HIV/AIDS Initiative: An Update

Last year about this time, then
Peace Corps Director, Mark Schneider
announced a recommitment by Peace
Corps to HIV/AIDS related projects
and programs. In the year since Peace
Corps has significantly increased its
efforts and activities. We recently
received a copy of a Status Report on
such programs that summarizes input
from Peace Corps staff in countries
around the world. We’ve also learned
about related activities and projects
so far, funding availability, and future
plans. The report indicates an
escalation of HIV/AIDS interventions
in all Peace Corps regions, although a
majority of resources and efforts have
been concentrated in Africa. For the
year 2000, worldwide:
• 84 percent of Peace Corps posts are
providing Volunteers with HIV/AIDS
training.
• 2,551 Volunteers were trained in HIV/
AIDS.
• 1,725 Volunteers were involved in
HIV/AIDS related activities.
The report discusses the need for
integrating and institutionalizing HIV/
AIDS in all the Peace Corps programs
within a particular country, providing
a more holistic approach. The report
goes on to say that although “one-
- Mike Learned, Editor
shot” awareness-raising events are
still popular, they are less effective
than a deliberate long-term approach
that seeks to build skills and engage
...although “one-shot”
awareness-raising events
are still popular, they are
less effective than a delib-
erate long-term approach
that seeks to build skills
and engage in dialogue
with host country coun-
terparts.
in dialogue with host country
counterparts.
Peace Corps has kicked into higher
gear in 2001. In addition to activities
in Africa, there is great interest in the
Caribbean, Central and South
America, and parts of Eastern Europe
and Asia in HIV/AIDS prevention and
education programs. Funding from
USAID, the Gates and Packard
foundations are available to supple-
ment HIV/AIDS programming and
training activities in the field. To-
1
gether these funds can provide about
1.4 million dollars worth of support
for a variety of activities during the
2001 financial year: community
projects, training of community
workers and leaders, and materials
development activities.
In addition, smaller scale projects
can be funded through the Small
Projects Assistance (SPA) Program.
PCVs and their community counter-
parts identify a need at a local level
and submit requests for assistance. In
the last year more than a million
dollars has been sent to African
posts for SPA Grant activities. Many
of these grants were for HIV/AIDS
related projects.
The most appropriate way for
outside groups (like LGB RPCVs) to
contribute to these efforts is through
the Peace Corps Partnership Program,
the vehicle for privately donated
funds. Late in 1999 LGB RPCVs
worked with the Partnership Program
to establish the HIV/AIDS Prevention
and Education Fund, and we were the
first contributors. The fund allows
RPCV groups and others an easy way
to financially support volunteer
efforts to combat this disease and its
Continued on page 7
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001
Ambush - A Health Generalist PCV, Malawi
I received a care package from an
ex-boyfriend the other day. Somehow
he had keen insight on what a lonely
American twenty-something living in
the African bush would need -
Britney Spears and the Backstreet
Boys! Well, that and a lot of other
cheesy-yet-addictive American pop I
had been missing out on. The mix
tape he put this all together on began
with a humorous look at Gay History
from 1980 to the 1990’s in a song
titled, well, what else, but “The Gay
90’s”.
As expected, the song hit a somber
point when the musical chronology
reached the 80s and the AIDS crisis.
Of course, at this point, my inner ego
blew a trumpet and sang “Yes! I am
here in Malawi - working to fight
AIDS!”. The fan fare though soon
gave way to increasing doubt as I
thought back to my own life in the
80’s. God, what had I been doing to
fight then? In 1989 I was a 12-year-old
boy-who-liked-boys but had no real
clue as to what that meant. I definitely
had no knowledge of what was
happening to other boys-who-liked-
boys around me. Now in a good ole
Irish Catholic kid like myself, all that
retrospective glance can do is cause a
hell of a lot of guilt - the creeping
thought that I did too little too late.
Luckily for me, somewhere
between high school and college
something clicked about the war I had
missed while playing with G.I. Joe.
Maybe I realized that the men I would
come to look at as forefathers were
suffocating and burying my history
with them. Or maybe I thought AIDS
work was a quick way to meet cute
boys. Either way, it started the engine
going for me at 18 on the train that
carried me here - to Malawi- living in a
village and working at the local health
center. Before stepping off the plane,
I had felt that my friends and I along
with the entire community, had helped
create slow, steady change. We were
all ‘making a difference’.
Then! Here, in my village, 1 in 4 of
the students will be positive before
they finish school. In class they are
taught that HIV was manufactured by
racist scientists; that God has handed
the bush a cure for immorality; that
little girls must subject themselves to
an older man (any older man); and
that a cure for this terrible curse lies
just down the river for a price. Here,
in my village, they can no longer
In the office we give
out aspirin for KS,
quinine for night sweats
with pneumonia, and an
incendiary lecture for
STDs.
provide a base level of care at the
health center because too many of the
staff members are dead. In the office
we give out aspirin for KS, quinine for
night sweats with pneumonia, and an
incendiary lecture for STDs. I stepped
into a place where HIV is more illusive
than the local witchcraft and I find
myself fearful of walking in the ward
because of whatever obsequious
liquid I might step in. The trumpet
stops playing. The fan fare dies. I
wonder why I’m here and what I can
do. Death is no longer a statistic in
the Washington Post - it’s the kid next
door. How can any of this change?
Change! You see change comes in
Malawi like a dog chasing its tail and
biting the end. Living in Sub-Saharan
Africa I feel like I’m 12 again and the
whole world is my one square mile
New Jersey town in 1989. Sure people
are aware - some are even working
and laying their lives down for the
cause. But for the rest? Are they like
that 12-year-old realizing all too late,
years down the line, what was going
on?
Now I get magazines from home
2
that detail how we are winning the
war, and finally, as gay men, being
able to live our lives. I’m over-
whelmed. Is Malawi like the lone boy,
left outside the joys of the Pied
Piper’s care, simply because he is too
slow to catch up? Sure, in Malawi,
HIV has never been a “gay disease”.
But I thought our fight wasn’t just
about stigma, I thought it was about
the disease. We can’t possibly back
out now in Round 2. HIV hides in
bottlestores in Malawi as much as it
did in bathhouses in San Francisco.
It’s waiting for a more virulent strain
to come along and ambush us while
our guard is down.
I realize, in most ways, I’m preach-
ing to the choir. I don’t mean to ask
the gay community to martyr itself to
the disease again or to create doubt
and guilt amongst those who already
find the time for charity work.
Instead, I’m asking us to have as
much awareness today as I should
have had ten years ago. We’re all
tired - let’s just be done with it
already.
Editor’s note: When a volunteer’s
security is an issue, we do not credit
an author by full name. Sometimes we
use a first name, a nickname, or as in
this case we describe his or her role
as a volunteer. We look forward to the
day when this is no longer necessary.
If you’d like to contact the writer you
can contact the editor Mike Learned
at 103571.2317@compuserve.com
and we’ll forward your email to the
author in Malawi.

A Home for AIDS Orphans
I’ve been following the develop-
ment of the AIDS crisis and the
growing population of AIDS orphans
in Southern Africa. Together with
some Peace Corps associates we
formed Ekhaya, which means house
or home in Zulu and Swati, to provide
assistance for a few of the millions of
AIDS orphans in Africa. Here is some
of the story behind Ekhaya.
I arrived at Eric Rosenburg High
School in the Shiselweni district of
Swaziland after two months of
training in the capital city of
Mbabane. It was a hot, dry summer
day in January 1992. The place
seemed deserted. School would not
start for about a week, and the
teachers had not yet returned from
summer vacation. Together with the
Peace Corps driver, we did manage to
find one teacher. She made an
assumption of where I would be
staying. We unloaded my belongings
and the driver headed back the
Mbabane. I had arrived at what
would be my home for the next two
years. If it weren’t for the teacher’s
nephew, I would have felt very alone
and abandoned. He helped me
organize my belongings and later we
played cards late into the night as he
told me about my new school and
community.
The school didn’t seem too
unusual. It was a series of plastered
cement block buildings for class-
rooms. The teacher’s housing was on
the far corner of the same parcel, a
cluster of 20 or so houses. The school
was located in the high veld or
mountainous region of Swaziland, in
Gege a small community nestled
between in the mountains. The
homesteads surrounding the school
were spread out far enough to allow
each an area to grow maize. There was
a mix of traditional mud and stick
houses with thatched or tin roofs, and
a few houses that were plastered
cement block with tin roofs similar to
the school buildings.
- Doug Long, RPCV, Swaziland
There hasn’t been a day since
arriving at Eric Rosenburg, where I
would teach woodwork and technical
drawing, that I haven’t thought about
Africa and her people, especially the
children. The children gave me the
opportunity to become a teacher and
mentor. One gave me the opportunity
to stand-in as a father. I’m sure I
would have empathy for the orphans
in Africa even without having served
in the Peace Corps, but if I hadn’t, I
doubt that I would be serving on a
committee to provide assistance for
them.
To make a donation to
Ekhaya visit our Web
site at
http://www.ekhaya.org.
There you will find a
donation form and more
information about us.
Email can be sent to
orphans@ekhaya.org
Or contact us at:
Ekhaya
C/O Life Foundation
233 Keawe Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
USA
To put it graphically, I think each of
us is like a dot in the middle of a
series of ever growing concentric
circles. Our level of care, concern and
contribution starts with self, which is
the dot and diminishes to some
degree with each ever-widening circle
of acquaintances around us. There
are two variables. First, there’s the
level of care, concern and contribu-
tion which can expand and contract
to include or exclude circles. Second,
3
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001
there’s the people within the circles.
They’re not in a stagnant position,
but a dynamic one. Based on our
experience, interactions and reading,
people can move between circles,
becoming closer or more distant from
the center.
My experiences and interactions
with the people of Africa have moved
them into one of my closer circles. My
goal now is to move them into other
people’s closer circles, into one of
those circles that include contribu-
tion. I would hope that this happens
to you, not through feelings of guilt
or obligation, but because you feel
closer and more connected to the
children of Africa.
I’m not going to show you pictures
of starving children on the streets
who are living in culverts or under
bridges. I would rather tell you about
a young child crawling onto my lap,
wrapping his small arms around me in
a loving hug, then falling asleep in
the comfort of my embrace. I would
rather tell you about the children’s
beautiful smiles and bright eyes
gleaming as they look up to me. I
would rather tell you about walking
down a rural road and hearing a voice
calling out from the distant surround-
ing hills or across the field a greeting,
“Mr. Long.....” or Thishela... which
means teacher. I would rather tell you
of a student coming up after class
saying, “Mister Long, I have a
problem.” It’s not a school problem,
but rather a problem in life for which
he/she is asking for guidance. I would
rather tell you about passing an older
man, in Swati Mkhulu, walking down
the road, greeting me with Yebo,
Numzane a term of respect. I would
rather tell you about being invited to
visit a homestead as a new family
member, or about being scolded for
not visiting one. I’d rather tell you
about being treated as a friend, a
teacher, a father, a mentor. Nothing
foreign, no race, no religion, just
Continued on page 7
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001
What I Learned in Zimbabwe
Now that I’m back in the U.S., I
often struggle when asked about the
time I spent in Zimbabwe. I think some
of the struggle comes from what my
assignment turned out to be - a series
of separate experiences, each of which
lasted for a few months. I was in
Zimbabwe for 13 months, or exactly
half of what I expected when I left the
U.S. in October of 1999. A shortened
assignment should have left me with
less to write about. But, I often feel
like it has left me with more. As I
moved from training, to teaching at
my rural school, to being moved back
to Harare (Zimbabwe’s capital), to
working for a hospice in that city,
there was enough time for strong
impressions and feelings, but not
much for those to be tested and
refined by day-to-day life. I’m left with
many (mostly good) memories of
Zimbabwe. The struggle is to connect
them in a way that makes sense.
I taught for four short months at
my school in Eastern Zimbabwe.
Volunteers were pulled from their rural
sites as the violence preceding the
parliamentary elections heated up in
April of 2000. All of the rural volun-
teers spent a number of weeks
consolidated in Harare. In May, Peace
Corps made the decision to send the
majority of the volunteers home, with
the hope that those who weren’t
scheduled to end their service in 2000
could return once the parliamentary
elections were over. Out of around 100
volunteers fewer than 30 chose to
stay and get matched to an interim
city job. I was one of those.
I chose to stay because I wanted to
get back to my school. The first term I
taught was filled with many more
mistakes than successes. But, I was
encouraged about the coming terms.
The small rural school of 200 students
where I and eight Zimbabwean
teachers worked had become my
home. My Shona was improving. My
students and I had come a long way
in understanding each other. The
- Jeff Maggioli, RPCV
parents seemed motivated to improve
the school. In fact, the school commit-
tee had already secured their own
grant (before I arrived) to build a
laboratory and install electricity - two
projects that were still in process
when I left.
Of course, those were the practical
reasons to stay. In the end, the
reasons that are less easy to put into
words were at least as important. I had
Of course now, when
I think about being at
my school, what comes
to mind isn’t the ab-
stract idea of the good-
ness of these friends,
but the times that we
shared.
in those few months begun to feel
connections to the place (mountain-
ous and fertile, Zimbabwe’s Eastern
Highlands is not a difficult region to
love) as well as with my students.
After some months of trial and error,
my partner here in the States and I
managed a routine of letters and
occasional phone calls that was giving
us both security in sticking with our
(very) long distance relationship.
Lastly, a few friendships had begun
that I was certain would only grow.
These nascent friendships included
my relationship with two male teach-
ers. One was the headmaster at my
school and the other my housemate. I
miss them, which isn’t so surprising.
They are exceptional people who
treated me with warmth and respect-
both personally and professionally. Of
course now, when I think about being
at my school, what comes to mind
isn’t the abstract idea of the goodness
of these friends, but the times that we
shared. We had a habit of talking on
4
occasion for a few hours after dinner.
Our conversations varied: Shona and
western beliefs, our students,
Zimbabwe’s shaky future. The setting
has probably left as much of an
imprint as the things we talked about.
Dusk was around 6:30 or 7. We’d
usually pass around a bowl of
groundnuts or boiled pumpkin as we
talked. By the time we finished talking,
the room would be lit dimly by one
kerosene lantern. Outside, the night
was black and cool. On clear nights,
we’d walk my headmaster home under
a brilliant Southern African sky.
I bring up my memories with these
two men because writing it out I can
kind of recapture my times with them
and maybe a bit of the immediacy of
life in rural Zimbabwe. But, I also do it
because I’ve started to feel like my
relationship with them was part of a
larger theme; one that ties together
memories from all the phases of my
Peace Corps assignment. That theme,
as best as I can describe it, was my
gradual realization of the ways men
relate to each other in Zimbabwe.
It became obvious during training,
which was held in a rural village in
central Zimbabwe, that Zimbabwean
men interacted in ways that few
American men would. One Saturday
during training I accompanied my host
family to a Seventh Day Adventist
service. After the service we settled in
groups of about 20 outside to talk
about the sermon and the week’s
lesson. One group of young men
(about 18 to 35 yrs old) settled on a
low wall. Another soon filled in,
sitting on the ground at their feet. As
the afternoon and the heat reached its
peak, the men began to lean on each
other: a supporting hand on a friend’s
shoulder, a head resting on a thigh, an
arm casually draped across a friend’s
calf. The unselfconscious intimacy
these guys had with each other
caught me off guard.
Once I was at my school and began
teaching I was able to see a bit of how

younger men interacted with one
another socially. One bright day in
March, after the rainy season had
ended, I was assigned the duty of
taking a group of boys from my
secondary school about 5 kilometers
to a river. Our job was to repair a pipe
that was used to gravity feed a supply
of water down to the school during the
dry season. Our hike started in a valley
and continued up into the low green
mountains of Zimbabwe, with the more
rugged mountains of Mozambique to
our backs. The colors were stunning.
We passed homesteads with their
fields of tobacco, red peppers, and
sunflowers. My students picked ripe
guavas and threw them to each other
and to me.
The boys worked together
seamlessly. They divided themselves
up into groups when we reached the
river and each group took on a
separate task. There was some debate
about specifics, but it always resolved
good-naturedly. On the way to and
from the river, I was impressed by the
fact that none of the boys seemed to
be excluded. I knew these students
from the classroom, but many were
different among their peers. I saw two
boys in particular who often seemed
distant and tentative in class. They
clearly had the respect of the others
and took on central positions in
deciding how to look for leaks and
assigning jobs to one another. No one
seemed to be left out or singled out for
being different. Disagreements were
resolved with a little jostling, smiles,
and exasperated exclamations of
shamwari (the Shona word for friend).
Taken by themselves I doubt I
would find much of a common thread
running through these memories. But
set against a backdrop of countless
small day-to-day experiences with men
in rural and urban Zimbabwe, patterns
emerge. For me it was kind of a
learning experience to see, as the
norm, how men could interact in ways
that were intimate, cooperative, and
inclusive - qualities not reinforced
much in American men. Of course, I
now have the perspective of looking
across the full time I spent in Zimba-
bwe. At the time of each experience, I
just had a sense that something
significant had happened, but
couldn’t always explain why. Peace
Corps prepares you for the jarring
experiences of awakening in a new
culture. But, I wasn’t as prepared for
the moments when facets of the new
For me it was kind of
a learning experience to
see, as the norm, how
men could interact in
ways that were intimate,
cooperative, and inclu-
sive - qualities not rein-
forced much in Ameri-
can men.
culture felt oddly familiar while part of
my own felt strange and slightly off.
I don’t write this with any claims of
objectivity or any deep investigation
into the people of Zimbabwe. There
was likely much more that I didn’t
observe than I did. I also don’t make
any claims for Zimbabwean men
having some kind of ideal way of
looking at the world. If this were an
article about cultural attitudes toward
women, HIV/AIDS, or homosexuality,
I wouldn’t be able to be very chari-
table. Finally, this isn’t meant to be
about men of any specific sexual
orientation. I never had a good sense
of what it means to be homosexual in
rural Africa. And, in the end, I think
that, regardless of sexual orientation,
you absorb your culture’s ideas of
how you should be.
I left Zimbabwe in November of
2000, after Peace Corps had decided
that we would not be allowed to go
5
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001
back to our rural schools for the
remainder of our time in country.
There were opportunities to be
reassigned to positions with NGOs in
the cities, but for a number of reasons
these didn’t seem like a good fit for
me.
The time at my school continues to
dominate my memories of Zimbabwe.
Its mention brings echoes of marking
papers under an asbestos roof that
roared with the storm outside, of
moments of connection with my
students, and the faces of the friends.
But, what links the different stages of
my time in Zimbabwe are the qualities
of the people I met there. This
includes the cultural qualities of men
that I’ve described. In a larger sense,
it includes a graciousness and way of
respecting each other that seem
uncommon in the U.S. My assignment
was odd, at times frustrating, and little
of what I expected, but it’s experiences
like these that make me unable to
regret my time in Zimbabwe. In 13
months I learned a little about
teaching, but much more about the
possibilities of human relationships.
In the end, I think I’m left with the
challenge most all RPCVs face: how to
build connections between these
things I’ve learned and life back in the
U.S.
Jeff Maggioli can be reached by
email at jmaggioli@qwest.net.
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001
Gaysia Still
Seeking Editor
The volunteer written and edited newsletter, Gaysia is
still seeking a new editor(s). Gaysia is a newsletter for
lesbian and gay volunteers in Asia and their friends.
Editors Tammie and Brett have completed their service in
Thailand and are returning home. If you or someone you
know (a current volunteer in Asia) is interested, contact
your country director or Thailand CD, Roger Harmon. In
the meantime submissions for future issues of Gaysia can
be sent to :
Gaysia
c/o US Peace Corps, Thailand
242 Rajvithi Road, Dusit
Bangkok, Thailand 10300
Membership Income
Increases!
Response to our annual membership renewal drive has
been very successful. This along with a significant
increase of NPCA memberships indicating LGB RPCV
affiliate status, have increased our membership income
60% over the same period last year. We appreciate this
show of support for our projects and activities. What
we’re able to do is directly tied to the financial support we
receive from our members. In the next couple of weeks
we’re sending out reminders to 60 or so members who’ve
not yet paid their 2001 membership fees.
PO Box 14332
San Francisco CA 94114-4332
lgbrpcv@yahoo.com
http://www.lgbrpcv.org
Editor Mike Learned
Layout Kevin H. Souza
The LGB RPCV Newsletter is published quarterly by the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual RPCV Organization, an affiliate of
the National Peace Corps Association. We exist to promote
Peace Corps ideals and acceptance of gays and lesbians
throughout the world. Submission of articles or graphics to
be published in the newsletter is encouraged. The right to
use or edit materials remains with the editor. Copyright
remains with the author. Send submissions or inquires to
the above postal or e-mail address.
6
Peace Corps’/ LGB
RPCV’s 40th
Anniversary Plans
Peace Corps celebrates its 40th Anniversary the
weekend of September 20 to 23 in Washington
D.C. LGB RPCVs will be there as active partici-
pants in the events. Right now our Washington
D.C. representative, Dennis Gilligan, is involved in
the planning stages. If we can work out timing
and logistics issues, we’ll hold a social event
early one evening near the Hotel Washington
(celebration headquarters) in downtown D.C. If
you’d like to give Dennis Giligan a hand with
planning, email him gilligan@zzapp.org.
We urge you all to come and help celebrate
Peace Corps’ 40th anniversary and the 10t h
anniversary of LGB RPCVs. On-line registration
for the celebration/conference is available at
http://www.rpcv.org. Early bird discounts are
available until June 1.
We’ll have many more details in the August
issue of the newsletter and on our website. If
you’d like to be in contact with other LGB RPCV
members going to the celebration, you can use
our listserv. To subscribe or update your email
address send an empty (no content) message to
lgbrpcv-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
LGB RPCV HIV/AIDS
Coordinator
LGB RPCV’s Steering Committee recently appointed
Suzanne Marks, our Southeastern Representative as LGB
RPCV’s HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education Project
coordinator. She will coordinate any activities of ours that
support Peace Corps’ HIV/AIDS related projects and
programs. This will include recommendations about any
contributions the organization makes to the Partnership
Program or any other HIV/AIDS related project. Suzanne
lives in Atlanta and is an active member of the Atlanta
geographic area RPCV group. She fills a similar role for
that organization. She can be reached by email
suzmarks@mindspring.com.

AIDS Orphans
Continued from page 3
people interacting, caring and loving.
I can’t give you my experiences. You
have your own. I can tell you that the
more you know about a person or
group of people, the closer they move
to your inner circles. All I can do is
ask that through travel, reading,
music, TV documentaries or expand-
ing your level of care, you include the
children of Africa in one of your inner
circles of contribution.The truth is,
the problem is big, bigger than the
local governments can take care of
without outside assistance. The truth
is, this is not the only area of the
world that needs your support. It is
only one of them.
So, what is special about Ekhaya
that would want you to channel you
contributions through our organiza-
tion? Ekhaya has been fortunate to be
able to form an association with the
Life Foundation of Hawaii, and
existing tax-exempt non-profit
corporation working with AIDS
related issues since 1983. Working as
a committee of Life Foundations, we
were spared the task of forming a
non-profit corporation and applying
for tax-exempt status, although this is
always an option for the future. Our
arrangement with Life Foundation at
this point is that 100% of all funds
donated to Ekhaya are passed on
without any money deducted for
overhead. As a small fee for services,
the Life Foundation does retain
interest income for funds on deposit.
The Life Foundation has, through a
December 2000 fund raising event,
also contributed $2000 to Ekhaya. Our
goal is to provide assistance to the
orphaned children of Africa in such a
way that it enables as many children
as possible to remain at home (in
homesteads) cared for by members of
their extended family. It was decided
that this support would be channeled
through existing local grass root
organizations, which provide food,
shelter and education for the orphans.
Associations we are currently
working with are OrphanAid, Save the
Children, Swaziland (not affiliated
with the international organization)
and Swaziland Hospice at Home.
These are associations that I have
visited while on a trip to Southern
Africa in Sept/Oct 2000. I had the
opportunity to visit each of their
offices and in the case of OrphanAid,
accompany the field representative on
his visits to rural homesteads.
Contributions were made to each
of these organizations earlier this
year. The money sent to OrphanAID
and Save the Children was used to
pay school fees and other school
related expenses. The combined
contribution was enough to pay fees
for close to 200 children. It is not our
intention to pay only school fees, but
it was the right thing to do at the time
the disbursements were made.
Housing and food can be provided at
a subsistence level for the most part
without much money, but to stay in
school the children need cash. A
smaller contribution made to Hospice
at Home was used as part of their
general fund to continue to provide
hospice support, mostly to mothers
infected with the AIDS virus, many
with young children. Currently all
the organizations we are working with
are located in Swaziland because all of
the current RPCV’s on the committee
served in Swaziland.
Our goal for this year is to expand
our support to extend outside the
borders of Swaziland to other African
countries. Rumi Takahashi also a
RPCV of Swaziland has travel
planned to Southern Africa in July
this year. I plan to return again in
September this year. These personally
funded trips will also give us the
opportunity to make contact with
more organizations in Swaziland and
other surrounding countries.
We are very anxious to have other
7
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001
RPCV’s join our organization,
especially those with contacts in
other Southern Africa countries. We
are always in need of organizational,
writing and fundraising skills and
ideas. You are invited to visit our web
site at http://www.ekhaya.org. There
you will find a donation form and
more information about Ekhaya. Email
can be sent to orphans@ekhaya.org
Doug Long can be reached on
dlong@hrcn.com
HIV/AIDS Initiative...
Continued from page 1
effects within their communities. As
an organization we have continued to
solicit our members to contribute to
the HIV/AIDS Prevention and
Education Fund.
The HIV/AIDS Initiative is now
being pushed forward by PCVs and
in-country staff, the people who best
understand the need. There has been
a long tradition at Peace Corps to
listen to volunteer initiated program
and project ideas. The Peace Corps
staff in Washington is there to
provide support to the field in these
endeavors and there is funding
available for many of the most
promising and innovative proposals.
While Peace Corps waits for a new
Director, Washington staff does see
promise in the new administration’s
interest in increased funding for HIV/
AIDS prevention and education
activities.
If you’re interested in an
email version of Peace
Corps’ 2000 Project
Status Report on the
HIV/AIDS Initiative,
contact Mike Learned at
103571.2317@compuserve.com
LGB RPCV NewsLetter - May 2001

Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual

Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
Who are we?
We’re an organization of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and others who are former Peace Corps
volunteers, current volunteers, former and current staff members, and friends. Founded in Washington
D.C. in 1991, we have several hundred members throughout the country and around the world who
have served in the Peace Corps since its beginning in 1961.
We are composed of a national steering committee, together with regional chapters. We currently
have local chapters in San Francisco, Southern California, and Washington D.C. We are an affiliate mem-
ber of the National Peace Corps Association.
What’s our purpose?
We promote Peace Corps ideals and acceptance of lesbians, gays and bisexuals throughout the
world.
What do we do?
u Provide support to our national members and current volunteers.
u Facilitate the creation of regional chapters.
u Actively involve ourselves as an affiliate of the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA).
u Promote policies and projects that support Peace Corps ideals and the acceptance and active
involvement of lesbians, gays and bisexuals within the Peace Corps.
u Take an active part in Gay Pride events around the country encouraging gays, lesbians and bisexu-
als to consider the Peace Corps experience.
u Offer our members as informational resources and mentors for lesbians, gays and bisexuals who
have been offered a Peace Corps assignment.
u Host social events for our members.
u Communicate regularly with our members and others through a quarterly newsletter and our web site.

New Membership * Address Change Form

New Member
Name: Change of Address/Renewal
I would talk with applicants
Street:
about my experience.

City: State: Zip:

Phone/Fax/E-mail:

Country of Service: Years:

PC Project: Current Work:

Membership: $15 for LGB RPCV Affiliate Only or FREE to Current Volunteers 5/01
$40 for LGB RPCV Plus the National Peace Corps Association

LGB RPCVs; PO Box 14332; San Francisco, CA 94114-4332

E-mail: lgbrpcv@yahoo.com * http://www.lgbrpcv.org
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