National Peace Corps Association. Endless Experience and Opportunities

        HBCU Emergency Management Consortium members:

        Opportunities abound outside of the U.S.

        BEMA.

National Peace Corps Association
http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/2014/05/minorities-in-the-peace-corps-panel-coming-to-nashville/=

Minorities in the Peace Corps Panel Coming to Nashville

By Teniola Ayoola on Wednesday, May 21st, 2014

Ever wondered about the diversity of Americans who have served in the Peace Corps over the past 53 years?

If you asked today, only a very rough estimate would be available. Herman DeBose and J. Henry “Hank” Ambrose are two Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) who are out to change that. During the upcoming Peace Corps Connect conference in Nashville this June 19 -21, they will host the session Minorities in the Peace Corps.

The goal of the panel is first, to bring together a spectrum of minority RPCVs and discuss their experiences after completing their Peace Corps service and returning to the United States. Secondly, because of the very low historic data on minority service in the Peace Corps, DeBose and Ambrose are more specifically seeking ideas on how to expand and build the database of African American RPCVs. For Ambrose, “it seemed like a good idea to involve the broader minority community in the discussion while kicking off the research project on African American RPCVs.”

Friendship Forged in Kenya

Ambrose served over 40 years ago as a lecturer in the mathematics department at Kenyatta College from January 1971 through June 1973. His personal experience sheds some insight into the service distribution among different racial groups in the past. “I was the only African American in Group III, for the Peace Corps/College degree program. I thought for sure I would have other African-Americans in the training program for Kenya, but again I was the only one.”

According to the Peace Corps, as of February 2014 over 215, 000 Americans have served in the Peace Corps. Of that number, it is estimated that approximately 3% (6,300) to 5% (10,500) have been African Americans. A search of the existing literature on the subject matter shows that at this time there has not been a comprehensive study of the overall experiences of African Americans who have served in the Peace Corps.

Herman DeBose, who served as an education Volunteer in Kenya 1969 to 1972 for a total of 33 months, and as an Associate Peace Corps Director in Kenya from 1985 to 1987, is currently the chair of the sociology department at California State University, Northridge (read his bio here). He provides an answer as to why it is important and beneficial to have knowledge on the experience of African Americans in the Peace Corps:

“As the American population becomes more diverse, it is important for an organization such as the Peace Corps to have its Volunteers represent and reflect the population of the United States. If the estimates cited above are correct, more African Americans need to be encouraged to serve as Peace Corps Volunteers. The project will provide information from African American RPCVs to Peace Corps on how to more effectively recruit them to the service of Peace Corps and maintain and support them while serving as Peace Corps Volunteers.”

Continued service to Peace Corps ideals

Both men have strong ties to the National Peace Corps Association. Ambrose, now retired from a long career in the telecommunications industry, currently serves on the NPCA board of directors (read his bio here). DeBose was anNPCA founder (pictured right, second from the right).

“My experiences in Peace Corps changed my life…” says DeBose. “The educational and employment opportunities presented to me after my Volunteer services were things that I could not imagine. I would like to have the opportunity to share my Peace Corps Volunteer experiences and the different opportunities it presented to me with other minorities.”

The discussion around this panel is sure to be fascinating, and it will serve as the kick-off for this long overdue research topic.  Don’t miss the opportunity to be a part of change-in-the-making at thePeace Corps Connect conference this June 19th -21st in Nashville, TN!

SBA......What Are the Top Five Disaster Risks to Small Businesses?

Check with your local SBA office for similar awareness and tips for businesses in your community.

Location, Location, Location!  Small, medium, large, and multi-national companies are part of our ‘WHOLE COMMUNITY’ and are not only needed during non-emergency or crisis situations.

Business continuity plans (BCP) should be a standard practice for all organizations. 

How will your local service station provide service in a major power outage in the distribution of gasoline\fuel? 

One question, just a start.

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Fresno SBA District Office (559) 487-5791  Serving the 15 Counties of Central California Small Business Preparedness Tips to be Shared at Free Webinar Two major challenges small business owners face after disasters are sales losses and a diminished customer base.  In a survey of 7,500 small and medium-sized businesses by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), 62% said losing profits and clients was their biggest post-disaster challenge.  Whether it’s a fire, flood or tornado, small businesses face an uphill trek when it comes to rebuilding in the aftermath of a disaster.  That’s why it’s important to have a recovery plan in place. Assessing your company’s risks is one of the first steps in creating an effective business continuity plan.  Join Agility Recovery and the U.S. Small Business Administration on Tuesday, July 8, for an online discussion on how to protect your business before a disaster strikes.     SBA has partnered with Agility to offer business continuity strategies at its “PrepareMyBusiness” website. Visit www.preparemybusiness.org to download disaster planning tip sheets and to view archived webinars. The SBA provides disaster recovery assistance in the form of low-interest loans to homeowners, renters, private nonprofits and businesses of all sizes. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov/disaster. WHAT: “The Top 5 Risks to Businesses in America”    A presentation followed by a question and answer session WHEN: Tuesday, July 8, 2014 -- 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT HOW:  Space is limited. Register at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/923337112 Date: 06/24/2014 Author Information: Melende Ward

Black Emergency Managers Association  

1231  Good Hope Road  S.E.

Washington, D.C.  20020

Office:   202-618-9097 

bEMA 

Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.   Tom Peters

…….The search is on.

Teens Create A Way To Use Urine As Fuel

Keep in mind the aircraft industry and the achievements from the flight of the Wright Brothers to today.

The knowledge the innovation is there waiting to be harnessed.

BEMA

http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewdepaula/2012/11/08/teens-create-a-way-to-use-urine-as-fuel/

Teens Create A Way To Use Urine As Fuel

Here’s some news from Africa that will be of interest to all of the people waiting in line for gas to use in their generators after Hurricane Sandy.

Four teenage girls figured out a way to use a liter of urine as fuel to get six hours of electricity from their generator. Fourteen-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, and Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola displayed their invention this week at Maker Faire Africa in Lagos, Nigeria, an annual event meant to showcase ingenuity.

Here’s how the urine-powered generator works, as explained by the blog on the makerfaireafrica.comwebsite:

• Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which separates out the hydrogen.

• The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, and then into a gas cylinder, which looks similar to the kind used for outdoor barbecue grills.

• The gas cylinder pushes the filtered hydrogen into another cylinder that contains liquid borax, in order to remove moisture from the gas. Borax is a natural mineral, commonly used in laundry detergent.

• The hydrogen is pushed into a power generator in the final step of the process.

A big drawback is that hydrogen poses an explosion risk. But the girls used one-way valves throughout the device as a safety measure.

Three of the four girls with their ingenious invention. (Credit: makerfaireafrice.com)

The idea of using urine as fuel is not new. The girls have come up with a practical way to put the idea into action, though. Their method for using urine to power a generator is one the average household can appreciate.

Power generators are used far more often in Africa than here, where they are relegated more to emergency use, as in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. The Maker Faire Africa blog says power outages happen multiple times a day in Lagos, so all those who can afford a backup generator have one.

Still, technology needs to evolve further before such a system is feasible, at least as far as applications like powering generators go.

Gerardine Botte, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio University, is among those working on practical ways to make urine into a more useful hydrogen source, essentially by turning power into a byproduct of wastewater treatment. She says it takes more energy to extract hydrogen from urine than you end up getting in return as electricity. The energy equation gets even more skewed by the inefficiency of the generator used in the girls’ project.

“At first glance, they’re not having a net gain in energy,” Botte says. “But I think it’s important to say that these little girls, trying to do something like this, deserve a lot of credit.”

The idea behind the humble urine-powered generator is along the lines of Botte’s own thinking, and her research is all about efficient ways to break urine down into its useful components.

Once the urine is processed, purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator. (Credit: makerfaireafrica.com)

Botte’s approach is to use electrolysis of urea as a method of wastewater treatment. She says her process for converting urine into potable water is more cost effective and more energy efficient than current wastewater treatment methods. Pure hydrogen is produced as a byproduct and can be used in generating electricity.

“You cannot get net energy gain, but there is no more efficient way to get clean water from urine,” Botte says.

Botte founded E3 Clean Technologies in 2011 to work on scaling the process for use by municipalities and others.

The U.S. Department of Defense is trying out a portable system from E3 at military bases in remote areas, as both a way to treat wastewater and generate power. The system, which Botte calls GreenBox technology, converts a soldier’s urine into drinking water.

“At forward operating bases, the main needs are water and fuel,” Botte says. “With this project, they’re doing both: using less energy to reutilize water sources.”

So, when put in the context of wastewater treatment, the concept of using urine as a hydrogen source to produce energy has great potential.

Since wastewater treatment plants already collect the raw material needed – urine – extracting hydrogen from it makes sense, Botte says. Doing so could regain some of the vast amounts of energy already being spent all over the world to treat waste.

“You will never get more energy out than you put in,” she says. “But it is a unique and elegant way to treat urine waste, which will allow you to co-generate electricity.”

To give you a sense of how much energy it is possible to recapture from this method of treating urine, Botte offers this:

“At Ohio University, where there are about 22,000 students, if we would collect the urine and produce hydrogen, we would be able to produce enough electricity to perhaps power about 100 to 150 residential houses for a year, continuously.”

Consider that before you dismiss what the enterprising teens did with their own project.

Maybe, as the technology evolves, it could be applied to vehicles someday. Gasoline-powered internal combustion engines can be converted relatively easily to run on hydrogen, which raises the question of whether there is potential for pee-powered cars in the future.

June 21-23 Peace Corps Celebrates `Next Generation' of Volunteers with Events at Georgetown University

http://www.peacecorps.gov/media/forpress/press/314/#

The Peace Corps Celebrates `Next Generation' of Volunteers with Events at Georgetown University June 21-23; Events Culminate with Unveiling of Peace Corps Stamp by U.S. Postal Service

Washington, D.C., June 11, 1999—More than 200 Peace Corps volunteers, the 'next generation' of Peace Corps volunteers to serve in the new millennium, will be in Washington, D.C. June 21-23, for a special training session before they depart for five countries—China, El Salvador, Ghana, Niger, and Romania. This fall, more than 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers, a 25-year high for the agency, will be working in 77 countries around the world.

Ambassadors' Forum
WHERE:Georgetown University, Inter-Cultural Center Auditorium
WHEN: Monday, June 21, 7 p.m.
PANEL: Ambassadors of China, El Salvador, Ghana, Niger, and Romania
Moderator: Former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao, now a distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation

Capitol Hill Welcoming Ceremony
WHERE:Caucus Room, Russell Senate Office Building
WHEN: Tuesday, June 22, 9 a.m.
Confirmed Attendees: Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Congressman Chris Shays (R-Conn.), Congressman Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Congressman James Walsh (R-N.Y.), and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

Panel Discussion with Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
WHERE:Georgetown University, Inter-Cultural Center Auditorium 
WHEN: Tuesday, June 22, 5 p.m.
PANEL:Returned Peace Corps volunteers now working in various fields, including business, health, education, non-profits and media
Moderator: Journalist Maureen Orth, a returned Peace Corps volunteer

Closing Ceremonies: Peace Corps Concert and Stamp Unveiling
WHERE:Copley Lawn, Main Campus, Georgetown University
WHEN: Wednesday, June 23, 6 p.m. Ð 9 p.m.
Entertainment: Comedian Al Franken, singer Cindy Cain, Big Village

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c9d922ee-f6e2-11e3-b271-00144feabdc0.html

June 18, 2014 4:31 pm

Liechtenstein agrees to return Abacha’s stolen €167m to Nigeria

By William Wallis in London

©AFP

Liechtenstein’s government has agreed to return to Nigeria €167m linked to the late General Sani Abacha, ending the country’s longest running battle to recover money that the late military dictator laundered through European banks.

Nigeria first requested Liechtenstein’s assistance in recovering the assets in 2000, two years after Abacha’s sudden death at the age of 54 paved the way for the return of civilian rule.

But the recovery effort has been hampered by lawsuitstaken out by companies linked to the Abacha family –as it has in other legal jurisdictions.

Liechtenstein’s constitutional court dismissed a final appeal over the return of the funds in March 2013, but the principality still refused to release the money, infuriating Nigerian officials.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s minister of economy and finance, late last year accused Liechtenstein of “aiding and abetting corruption” by refusing to accept Nigeria’s guarantees that it would pay compensation if any liabilities resulted from a last-ditch effort by Abacha-linked companies to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Officials in the principality feared they could be open to compensation claims from the Abacha-linked companies if it was shown they had not had a fair hearing.

But on Tuesday a statement by the principality said: “In May 2014, the complaint pending in Strasbourg was withdrawn by the four Abacha companies, clearing the path for repatriation of the assets once and for all.”

Abacha was the penultimate and most brutal of Nigeria’s military rulers. He and what Switzerland’s Supreme Court dubbed the “Abacha family criminal enterprise” amassed a fortune estimated at $3bn-$5bn from misappropriation of public funds during his 1993-1998 rule.

In a bizarre twist on Tuesday, the Nigerian government dropped embezzlement charges against Mohamed Abacha, the late dictator’s eldest son saying there had been new developments in the case.

Mohamed Abacha was accused of receiving N100bn ($600m) of the late dictator’s money, and has fought off various attempts to charge him over the years.

Enrico Monfrini, a Swiss lawyer working with the Nigerian government, has traced $2.4bn of assets linked to Abacha, most of which were channelled through European banks.

Criminal investigations and subsequent forfeiture proceedings established that the Lichtenstein funds originated from bribes paid by Germany’s Ferrostaal AG to companies whose ultimate beneficiary was Abacha. They related to a grossly inflated contract for the construction of an aluminium smelter.

So far, Nigeria has recovered $1.3bn, the largest tranche of which – $500m – came from Switzerland in 2005. A further $1.1bn – in France, the UK, Luxembourg and the Channel island of Jersey – is still tied up in legal proceedings. The US in March froze more than $458m linked to Abacha in Jersey and France.

Nigeria has engaged the World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery unit (Star), which was set up by Mrs Okonjo Iweala when she was at the bank, to ensure that the funds recovered from Liechtenstein are used properly – as it has done with other recovered assets.

While the Abacha funds are being recovered belatedly, fresh allegations of grand scale corruption have emerged in Nigeria this year.

The government of President Goodluck Jonathan has hired PwC to carry out a forensic audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in response to allegations by Lamido Sanusi, the former central bank governor, that the state oil company failed to remit as much as $20bn in revenues due to the treasury between 2012 and 2013.