Show are rarely touched they are fed by bottles of their cribs pupped up against the and sometimes left changed infrequently unattended at right Lynn and other are fighting to change that The day I visited die was holding one of her special children His name is Fsysal but 1 call him Malcolm" sbe explained “Ik was Abandoned about two months ago He’s about a year old Became he’s new and because he's a bn voi-unte- ony people oon i wm onwMn to deal wife him But fve been explaining Siefim Shats is an intense passion- ate nun who said the Peace Coips had changed him "It has humbled me” he explained "I wasn't raised in a ghetto per at but I was raised fat hand tames — frugal times I thought I’d been poor but I hadn’t seen poor until I came here" Stefim took me to a small settlement by a stream filled with waste from the nesAy city ofSettat— ready more an open sewer than a stream The Peace Cops dm dm nyinf 10 pcrnioc Inc irsmcra and local authorities to cover up the aew- - bon would not happen again Plenty of government officials and academics told me how vihabk the Peace Coras was to their countries but none of them carried quite the weight of the peopk who assembled in front of Dawn Dins' mud hut in Dibero a link village in Mali First came the dugu tiki the village chief to pay his respects to the volunteer and her friends then some of the other elders gathered around a chicken was slaughtered and tea was brewed (bra welcoming meal eaten with who have learned new growing and sales methods from Ikace Corps teachers from villages whose dean water came with Peace Carps help The scope and diver- - to describe here the dedication of (he vohmteen k uniformly impressive Although there volunteers are tome ofthe finest peopk I have ever met they are worried about the nature of their wore —and the future of the Puce Corps Every volunteer I talked with in Morocco was frustrated Women said they had been harassed in the culture Some had even been attacked Volunteers were angered that in some cases they had to help install sophistiwells cated technologies— mek-dominaa- dar-powered and expensive pumps for instance — which viiiage peopk could neither under- stand nor maintain The Moroccan refused to accept simpler hand pumps as a matter of pride they told me and the expensive high-tec- h equq-mewas now rotting in (he sand Other VOHMDBi COmpMPM (M IftSGCM Of working with the poor they were assigned to team English to affluent students in elite univenities In Mali one of the K) poorest nations on earth where the need k enormous the ftace Corps country director Hillary Whittaker had drawn up plans to expand to 180 volunteers The week 1 visited she was instead firing nine staff members on orders from Washington I'm making the best of it "she said In Togo the country director Robert Nicholas had to cut beck to 90 volunteers —thkin a nation which the Peace Corps over 26 years has helped to make remarkable progress “I’m supposed to be making lOjear commitments to some programs and I'm not sure we’ll be abk to live up to them” he said Tm worried that as the l¥ace Corps moves into Hungary and Poland Africa will be forgotten” fhnl Covenkll insists that the new moves into Europe will not be at the expense ofthe developing world "Peace Corps has to keep abreast of changing American foreign policy in order to remain vital” he sqrs "Agencies that don’t keep up simply wither and die" He imiak that hk new initiatives in Poland andHnngaty will not detract from Africa The proposed budget ”hM Down for the next fiscal year" hie saws We have the foil support of the White House” On the airplane returning from Africa an American academic struck up a conversation He had been hired by the gov-erame- at nt sp a"” ° ae ° hougfi their generation is often condemned for its materialism these volunteers quietly continue the figftt against povertyanddisease to them how pretty he is and the mes-starting to get across’' As she Malcolm turned up a beautiful perfect smik Lyru told me what his future would likely be: First this orphanage then another one for older children Then he will betumedoutoo the streets as a teen- without a family and with link ice in life Still she k trying to do what she can to make his life a link bet ter today T know I’m going to have to leave these babies someday” she said UI just can't bear to think of it” Sk K I er and find a dean water source only after much of the village died did Shorts “We coufck't save these peopk he said with a sadness end anger beyond his 28 yean "We couldn’t even find out the cause of their deteh There isn't money for the lab equipment or for autopsies Behind him was a field of nttie: nervous local authorities had bull dozed all the homes in the village and survivors were now living in shanties down the road But Stefoo Shorts was determined to make sure that what had happened to their families and neigh- get the go-ahe- ad the hands from a common bowl Whik we wailed for food the dugu tikTi son Isa Kuliboli talked about the volunteers who have worked in his village "They hne helped us with so many things” he said quietiy “With growing things with water with stoves mat bum less wood and make work easier We are dad to have them” tou hear the same sentiment throughout Africa— from small business owners whom the Ifeace Corn has helped to set up bookkeeping ana taught marketing techniques from rural cooperatives US fbreign-eidpro-gra- and was coming home from a field trip "You know” he said "it's a shame how much of this money never gets to the peopk it ends up in somebody's Swiss beak account The Peace Corps gets more done on its imfividual village-by-villalevel than most of these huge programs Irt too bad Washington doesn’t realize one fact The Peace Carps k the best foreign-ai- d program we have” flj ge For more utformarion write: orpoIOiptu Fi HkAkprs UJ Peace DC 20526 |