{"id":59075,"date":"2021-12-09T11:07:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T16:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?p=59075"},"modified":"2022-01-05T12:53:40","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T17:53:40","slug":"adapting-the-peace-corps-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/adapting-the-peace-corps-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Adapting the Peace Corps Model"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Marc Chalufour | Photos courtesy of Liz Fanning\/CorpsAfrica<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n

In the early 1990s, Liz Fanning spent two formative years as a <\/span>Peace Corps<\/span><\/a> volunteer in a small Moroccan village in the High Atlas mountains. She studied the impact of human and animal populations on endangered species\u2014and witnessed the power of the Peace Corps\u2019 model to aid communities and build mutual understanding between cultures. She also kept hearing the same question from young Moroccans: \u201cHow can I sign up?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Liz
Liz Fanning was inspired by her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and, with CorpsAfrica, has created volunteer opportunities for young Africans to work in their own countries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fanning (CAS\u201987) had no answer. The Peace Corps, an independent organization run by the US government, only accepts American volunteers, sending them overseas for two-year service trips. While some African countries, including Ghana and Nigeria, have mandatory national youth service programs, says Fanning, no organization existed to give young Africans Peace Corps-style volunteering opportunities in their own countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

After returning from Morocco, Fanning worked in development and recruiting at a series of nonprofits, but often thought about the question she was asked again and again in North Africa. Eventually, she decided to do something about it. Borrowing many aspects of the Peace Corps structure\u2014she retains close ties with the organization\u2014Fanning launched <\/span>CorpsAfrica<\/span><\/a> in 2011. CorpsAfrica, which operates in Malawi, Morocco, Rwanda, and Senegal, places African volunteers in their own countries. After a month of intensive training, they relocate to a remote village for ten months and work with the residents to identify and carry out a project. These have ranged from creating $500 wells for potable water in Malawi to CorpsAfrica\u2019s biggest endeavor yet: constructing <\/span>a $30,000 basketball court in an overcrowded refugee camp<\/span><\/a> in Malawi\u2014made possible by a donation from the National Basketball Association.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After ten years, the organization has grown to include a staff of 20, while volunteers have completed more than 500 projects. Now Fanning, a 2019 recipient of the <\/span>Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service<\/span><\/a> from the National Peace Corps Association and a <\/span>2021 AARP Purpose Prize Fellow<\/span><\/a>, is looking to expand the nonprofit. Her goal is to reach every country in Africa, welcoming thousands of volunteers annually. And while the coronavirus pandemic has posed many challenges, it has also helped demonstrate the strength of the CorpsAfrica model\u2014and shown some new ways forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learning to Listen<\/b><\/h3>\n

At the heart of Fanning\u2019s vision for CorpsAfrica is the relationship between volunteers and their communities. Unlike with the Peace Corps, they don\u2019t arrive with a preplanned project or sector-specific focus. Instead, they show up and listen\u2014for as long as it takes\u2014and follow the answers wherever they lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe train our volunteers in human-centered design,\u201d Fanning says. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go to a community and say, \u2018Do you want a school?\u2019 It\u2019s the wrong question. If you want to help somebody, listen to them; facilitate conversations to help them identify their highest priority development needs.\u201d Then the volunteers can help connect the community to the resources needed for their project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fanning says because CorpsAfrica\u2019s model aims to empower local communities\u2014not impose solutions from a distance\u2014everything is done with minimal outside influence. Fanning is the sole American employee of the organization, although a recent grant is allowing her to expand the nonprofit\u2019s headquarters. Most of the programmatic work is led by each country\u2019s central office. \u201cThey all are very independent,\u201d she says. \u201cWe try to work together as much as possible, but each country is so unique, so our offices and programs are tailored to their local environment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
Each CorpsAfrica volunteer works with their community to identify a priority project, such as this children\u2019s reading and learning space that Awa Gueye (in CorpsAfrica T-shirt) helped create in Diannah, Senegal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s reflected in the nonprofit\u2019s funding model: each community contributes around 25 percent of the cost of their project\u2014at least ten percent in cash and at least 15 percent in donated land, labor, or other asset\u2014with the remainder coming from CorpsAfrica donors. Fanning says volunteers are trained to \u201cbuild the capacity of the local community to help themselves, so they have ownership of what happens and they are invested in it financially as well. That\u2019s critical to long-term sustainability of the projects. The community members are owners, they are customers, not charity beneficiaries.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past 60 years, says Fanning, \u201cAfricans have seen young Americans\u2019 commitment to service through the Peace Corps and that example is something young Africans are now taking for themselves.\u201d After their terms end, many decide to build on their experiences by taking jobs with NGOs (nongovernmental organizations)\u2014including CorpsAfrica, which has a high number of alums on staff\u2014and expanding Africa\u2019s capacity for development work. She also hopes that CorpsAfrica\u2019s fundraising efforts in Africa will help to build a culture of philanthropy on the continent.<\/span><\/p>\n

The COVID-era Cohort<\/b><\/h3>\n

In March 2020, the Peace Corps was pulling approximately 7,000 volunteers out of Africa as COVID-19 spread globally. At the same time, CorpsAfrica gave their volunteers the choice to stay at their sites or return home. They\u2019d been in their villages for a couple months and many had begun their projects. \u201cThey all stayed\u2014every single one,\u201d Fanning says. \u201cThey wanted to help, and in some ways they were safer in those communities than in the cities, where COVID was more rampant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Unlike the Peace Corps, which places American volunteers in other countries, CorpsAfrica provides an opportunity for young African volunteers, such as Senegalese Ndeye Penda Fall, to work in their own countries.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Projects were paused and volunteers quickly pivoted to public health roles. Microgrants helped CorpsAfrica distribute face masks, gloves, and soap. Volunteers built foot-powered hand-washing stations, taught local tailors how to make masks, talked to their communities about safe practices like social distancing, and corrected misinformation. \u201cThey served as models of calm, prudent behavior,\u201d Fanning says. \u201cIt was so simple for us to do and it really demonstrated the power of our model. And it was a way for these young people to be part of the solution. They were all immediately crisis responders.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Measuring the impact of the volunteers\u2019 work has been difficult but, Fanning says, anecdotal evidence suggests that their villages have fared better than others during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the 2019\u20132020 class extended their tours, too, remaining at their sites for more than a year to finish their original projects. These included helping develop a health clinic for children in Malawi and sharing innovative techniques for improving rice production in Senegal. One of the standout projects of recent years though remains the basketball court at <\/span>Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The basketball court has been transformative, both for CorpsAfrica and for the children of the camp. <\/span>Dzaleka<\/span> was designed to house 14,000 people, but has become home to some 50,000, many fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With such overcrowding, there are few outlets for play and the court\u2014a high-end surface complete with the NBA logo in its center\u2014provides a new and important social space.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy they are supporting us by building this court,\u201d said Florence Masingo, a refugee from the DRC, in a video chronicling the court\u2019s development. Shooting hoops, she added, was a great release from the stresses of camp life.<\/span><\/p>\n