Friends of Nigeria Newsletter Selections, Winter 2005

Smokestacks like these are no longer seen in Maryland. Baltimore’s clean Inner Harbor, which now houses the National Aquarium and attracts thousands of tourists each year, is evidence that things can change.

Returned Volunteers know one response. Americans are selfish shepherds of our Earth’s resources. We volunteered in cultures that don’t gobble up natural resources to live in luxury.

Returned Volunteers understand why the world community is angry about a lot of things. But let’s just talk about Climate Change. That’s the new spin on Global Warming. Same problem, different name.

The concept of Global Warming is so huge, I never got a hold of it. Seems lots of people didn’t, which is why the spin meisters came up with a new name. Climate Change sounds more personal. At least, I think so since September.

In September, I signed up for a day of Advocacy Training offered by the NPCA (National Peace Corps Association). I went to explore a new avenue, meet some neat people and, maybe, get a chance to see and hear the new NPCA Director—whose name I couldn’t remember.

It was quite a day, let me tell you. That workshop knocked my socks off.

Jonathan Pearson, Micronesia 87-89, NPCA’s savvy Advocacy Director, organized a program that was informative, exciting, and local. Local is what gets you. If the problem is in your backyard, you sit up and pay attention. So Jonathan planned an Advocacy Training that focused on Maryland. Since June, he’s also put together similar training days focusing on local issues in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and most recently, New Orleans.

But let me tell you about our program. And, just imagine what a workshop in your home state would present.

Mike Tidwell, Micronesia 87-89, was our first presenter. You have to pay attention to that guy. He is an engaging environmentalist with a remarkable personal story. In 2002, after reading the Global Warming report of over 2000 scientists—the largest group of scientists ever assembled for one study/report—Mike redirected his entire career. He was stunned to learn how Climate Change is affecting the world of nature that had been his life-long love and professional focus. “I realized,” Mike told us, “that if we—I—didn’t take action to help to stem the advance of Climate Change, my three-year-old son would never enjoy backpacking, about which I was set to write a book for National Geographic.”

Maryland has tackled Climate Change by turning to clean energy production. Windmills in the hills of Virginia contribute 9% of Maryland’s energy needs.”

Mike gave up his lucrative writing career and didn’t write that book. Instead, in the three years since, he has almost single-handedly caused the state of Maryland to change its energy generation policies.
Maryland state law now requires 9% of its energy be produced from “clean” methods. We now use power from windmills built on the hills Virginia. Today, communities in Western Maryland heat their homes with a corn fuel.

What really made me catch my breath was the remarkable film Mike’s group, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, has produced. The film tells the story of erosion on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Locals whose grandparents once lived and fished on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay spoke about homesteads on islands that no longer exist. They showed pictures less than 60 years old of homes on islands that are now gone. It’s all just water today.

But, the film gives hope. It shows what is being done in Maryland. It urges viewers to work for even more methods to turn back the ravages of Climate Change.

After this exciting segment, two professional advocates presented techniques of persuasion. P. J. Simmons from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and David Devlin, Rwanda 79-81, from Aspen Institute’s Global Interdependence Initiative, provided concrete ideas and suggestions for us to use when advocating for concern about Climate Change.

The afternoon was spent in Group Exercises and Break Out Training led by Jonathan and Chris Klose, India 68-70, President of Klose Communications. The day ended with each attendee taking home an excellent packet of information.

Incidentally, that morining I met a charming RPCV who said he worked for NPCA. “Oh, what do you do there?” I asked.

“I’m the director,” he said. Now how do you tell a guy you didn’t remember his name?

Jane Schaefer (L), Chile 64-66, now from Elkton MD, and Marge Shannon Snoeren (R) (09) 63-65, Baltimore MD, were among the 27 attendees at the NPCA Advocacy Training held at the Shriver Center on the University of Maryland at Baltimore Campus in Ellicott City, MD in September.

Think about inviting Jonathan to develop a workshop in your area. With the Bush Administration’s track record of ignoring environmental concerns, now more than ever do we need to speak out.
If we don’t protect our Earth and its resources, nothing else will matter in 100 years.

You can contact Jonathan at advocacy@rpcv.org. He’s looking for venues where NPCA can hold additional Advocacy Training.

And, if you have a Training in your area, y

Shannon Snoeren is the past editor of the FON newsletter and is a practicing lawyer in Baltimore MD.

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Annette
Annette graduated from Boston University in 2001 with a Master of Arts in International Studies. During the course of her studies, she concentrated on gender issues in International Development, particularly in West Africa. On completion of this course, Annette went on to study International Health and gained a certificate in managing disasters and complex humanitarian disasters. Before leaving for Nigeria, Annette was working at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina. Annette speaks French and has more recently been studying Wolof in her spare time. She is well travelled, having visited Malaysia, Laos, Senegal, Guatemala and Indonesia among other countries.

Placement
Annette is in an organization called Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA ) in Abuja. The organisation is an umbrella organisation for about 40 NGOs involved in working towards achieving Education For All by 2015. They exist to mobilize, coordinate, facilitate and advocate on education issues from a civil society perspective.

The objectives of Annette’s placement are as follows:

* To improve the communication systems at the head office; between the office and member organizations and within individual membership organisation.

* To develop a satisfactory documentation and research system that will positively influence activities and actions taken on by the membership (coalition).

* To support both CSACEFA and member organizations in fund raising activities

* To support the Coalition to integrate HIV/Aids programs in their everyday activities.

She will be working in the head office as well as building the capacity of small civil societies across the country who represent the bulk of the membership of CSACEFA to enable them to achieve the overall objectives of the coalition. The Education for All by 2015 is one of the Millennium Development Goals.

Irma Fortuin — Update

Irma was briefly introduced to readers in the last issue of the newsletter. We now have more information about her posting.

Pankshin College of Education
The College of Education, Pankshin opened in 1974 and is one of two Colleges of Education in Plateau State. It is training nearly 3000 teachers through its full-time and part-time courses. These teachers will work in Primary and Junior Secondary schools. The qualification offered by the College is the National Certificate of Education (or NCE), which has become the minimum standard for Primary school teachers in Nigeria. The part-time NCE course in particular is upgrading the skills of practising, unqualified teachers in order to improve national standards of education. Pankshin College of Education houses a ‘model’ school where staff and students can practice their teaching skills and observe classes.

Irma will be working in collaboration with lecturers from other departments in the college to train student primary school teachers. She will be responsible for monitoring the success and productivity of the college’s teacher training programme, making recommendations and improvements where necessary.
Irma will teach some sample lessons in the college model school and will also observe students on teaching practice there. She will make full use of this unique facility to run some practical ‘hands-on’ workshops. Designing and implementing workshops in local schools and developing resources will also play a key part in feeding a more practical element into the college’s programme.

VSO Nigeria seeks to integrate HIV/AIDS awareness into all volunteer placements and Irma will be responsible for exploring ways that she and newly trained teachers can incorporate this issue into their roles.
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Nigeria was a land of promise in 1963. Everyone was excited about what could be accomplished in a united states of Nigeria. The ebullience was to be choked soon thereafter by an internal war and continued to be stifled for years by a series of self-serving, mismanaging and corrupt dictatorships.
In 2003 Kashmir ,too, was a land whose aspirations have been stifled and whose local economy has been shattered by 14 years of ongoing conflict. At one time it was a multicultural society of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others. After 14 years of warlike confrontation, it had been turned into an almost unitary Muslim state.

Our job as MSF volunteers was to provide psychological services to people whom we felt needed it after the years of conflict. To do this, we opened up two small counseling centers, and trained a number of local people in psychology to work as counselors in these centers. We also made almost daily visits to surrounding villages to give information about stress and tension, and to publicize our services.

It was a small effort, only an opening into what might have become something larger to staunch the psychological bleeding of the civilian population who had to live with the threat of almost daily shootings, bombings, and possible raids against their village.

Marty Wong in Kashmir in 2003.

Everything went well until a number of events occurred which seemed to imply that some of the independence-minded militant organizations and perhaps some of the local clerics were not happy with what we were doing. A week or so later an unrelated event occurred in nearby Afghanistan—five of our people riding in a Land Rover clearly marked with the MSF logo were machine-gunned and killed in what had to be a planned attack. The combined events threatened security so much that our people in Kashmir and Afghanistan were evacuated.

It was a sad day. MSF operations were shut down and the Kashmir efforts were halted. It was a re-run of what had happened in Nigeria when the Biafran war broke out—another tragedy of the inanity of war.

“You are really what each of us in the world should aspire to: to bring a clear person-to-person sense of what human beings can accomplish when they seek to meet on an even playing field, in a respectful caring way. Not in an attempt to proselytize, but to understand and find out about others. It is you who are the heart and soul of America. As Vice President Amin-Arsala said, this has been your gift….

“Know that I am not thinking of you as people who will change the image of American once again—that would be to damn you with faint praise. You are not changing anybody’s “image.” You are legitimately asserting that the humanity of this country has not lost its depth of commitment to being truly what peacemakers are. You are the people who once again must once more rise, as you have been asked to do by those of us who have some kind of common purpose with you but bring you external validation. You must be the ones to state that it is not a matter of image, it is a matter of being, it is a matter of the essence of who we seek to be and who we must be, if we are to find the language of understanding and bring it into the arenas where we can build peace from heart-to-heart, person-to-person conversation and exchange.”
Peter Yarrow: Performer and Activist; Member of Peter, Paul and Mary

“It’s clear that he shares our values and that we have common aspirations. So let’s just say he just skip the experience and he become a returned Peace Corps volunteer. On behalf of you and all of your passion, we are officially and eternally making Peter Yarrow a returned Peace Corps volunteer!”

Nigeria XVII (1965–1967) met in Washington D.C. for its second reunion Aug. 6–8, 2004. The first reunion, in 2002, attended by all 27 volunteers from Nigeria XVII, was held in East Lansing, Michigan, where we had trained. It resulted from the hard work of Al Cardwell, who had tracked everyone down 35 years later. Many of the volunteers had been evacuated or scattered during the Biafran War, and then either sent home or on to other countries to complete Peace Corps service.

A smaller gathering, Reunion 2004 gave those volunteers who could attend a chance to see the nation’s capital and spend some vacation time with family as well as to catch up on the events that had occurred in our lives since 2002. A highlight for many was the dinner at Roger Miller’s Restaurant, an event right out of our West African memories. “All those RPCVs on the lawn of this teeny tiny restaurant (according to Phyllis) fit into Al’s impression that “the restaurant could have come from any main street in Nigeria.” The food was as good as our memories of Nigerian cuisine, though the HOT sauce that accompanied our meat, fish and foofoo, all washed down with Guiness beer, was a bit spicier than many had remembered it.

The Silver Spring Maryland restaurant was named after Roger Miller (better known as Roger Milla), one of the first African players to become a major football (soccer) star on the international stage. Called the “Pele of Africa,” he put Africa on the football map as a member of Cameroon’s national team (the Indomitable Lions) in the 1982 World Cup competition.

In our free time, the Smithsonian Museum was a major attraction, particularly the Museum of African Art, which featured an impressive show of several modern Nigerian artists working in a variety of media. Others took the opportunity to visit monuments. As Dixie noted, seeing them all requires more than one trip, but a number of people tried to do it all. For Phyllis, it was a special opportunity to spend time at the new WWII memorial and think of her father, buried in Tunisia, who died in WWII without ever having seen his infant daughter.

In spite of the heightened security in Washington, we found it easy to get around the capital, except to Peace Corps headquarters. When George and Bette, who hosted the reunion, tried to arrange a tour of headquarters, they were told that returned volunteers were not allowed in the building under the new security guidelines. John, however, offered another opportunity to renew our ties with Nigeria through PCNAF (Peace Corps Nigeria Alumni Foundation), which is providing high school scholarships for Nigerian girls. Anyone interested in becoming involved can visit the website (www.PCNAF.org) or contact John at wilsonjww@yahoo.com. PCNAF is currently planning a fundraiser and would welcome participation.

For all of us, the reunion was an opportunity to renew our ties with one another and see the group together one more time. We are already discussing the site of our next reunion in 2006, and Al, intrepid as always, has begun planning the event.

Attendees included Jean Boyd (Ashaka/ Midwest), Kevin Burke (Oke-Mesi/Midwest), Al Cardwell (Ilorin/North) and wife Sue, Stefan Goodwin (Okene/Zaria/North), Dixie Harvey Adeniran (Bakana/East) and husband Jack, Joe Kapostasy (Agbor/Midwest) and Irene, Phyllis Noble (Ughelli/Midwest), George and Bette Petrides (Ikenanzizi/East), Rudy Reiblein (Ajuwa/), Diane and son Eric, John Wilson (Ilesha/Midwest) and Carol, and Larry Yarbrough (Keffi/North) and Helen.