Peace Corps Problems

As the dollar falls against most other currencies and the Peace Corps budget remains the same, PC worldwide is officially in crisis mode. Country budgets are stretched as far as they can go and more money is absolutely necessary if they aren't going to decrease the number of volunteers.

Our new Country Director is an amazing guy and has tons of management experience, but the Guinean staff here is dropping like flies, particularly the senior-level people. It's a perfect storm - PC doesn't have enough money to offer competitive salaries and the mining companies are all flush with cash.

In a country with literally no safety net (one of the great things about the West) I can't blame the staff members for moving to the mining companies where they will make a lot more money and will be able to feed their families as well as save enough to retire. But it is still disheartening - the mining companies have paid off the government officials and virtually none of the money they pay to the government makes it to the people - the World Bank still has to bail the government out and replenish the coffers with loans. If the companies did nothing other than pay taxes that could be used for infrastructure I would be all for them. But they are just as corrupt as the officials here - their payments go to personal bank accounts, not taxes. It's a strange dichotomy - since there is little in the way of jobs or infrastructure, Peace Corps/NGOs and the mining companies are essentially the only options for the educated elite. Obviously those two groups don't have much in common!

My guess is that in other countries where diverse public and private sector jobs are available (Romania, Mexico, Morocco), the Host Country Nationals (HCNs) who work for the Peace Corps are there because they believe in the ideals of the organization, even if they could be making more money somewhere else. I know that our staff members who are leaving love the Peace Corps, but they cannot resist the pull to the mines and the chance to finally make some real money - plus, it's a job that will always be there, where with the PC there's always a chance of evacuation and program closing...the mines have invested enough money here that they will never shut down, even if there is civil unrest.

I'm disappointed that such a talented group of staff members is leaving and hope that Peace Corps Washington gets the money they need to retain the staff that's left here. If the office doesn't replace most of the talent it will be extremely hard for the volunteers to successfully do their jobs and to keep morale high.