Peace Corps/Niger 45th Anniversary Celebrations

September 2007

The official Peace Corps/Niger
45th Anniversary Celebrations Pagne Design

The Niger Peace Corps office is preparing for the upcoming 45th anniversary of Peace Corps in Niger. Events include Peace Corps open house, a television show, special Swearing-In ceremony, and more. Your help is needed to make this event even more successful.

Peace Corps/Niger Country Director Mary M. Abrams sent the following message to volunteers about the events. Read on to find out how you can help!

May 30, 2007

Dear Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Niger,

The first group of Volunteers arrived in Niger on September 7, 1962. 45 years later, Peace Corps/Niger is proud to announce its 45th anniversary of collaboration and mutual friendship with Niger. To commemorate this landmark, we are putting together a series of activities that will culminate with a (a) porte ouverte at the Peace Corps bureau, (b) television show, and (c) special Swearing-In ceremony the week of 24-28 September, 2007. We are hopeful that Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter and a delegation from Washington will attend these events along with many dignitaries from both public and private sectors within Niger.

Ultimately, this celebration is about recognizing the work and impact that each current and returned Volunteer has accomplished during his/her time in Niger, and the partnerships and friendships fostered and endured over the years. In making this possible, we request your assistance.

First of all, we are working on preparing a television program to air on ORTN (Office de Radiodiffusion Television du Niger -- http://www.ortn-niger.com/) on September 26, 2007.

The program will be one hour long and include the following:

• Introduction of Peace Corps and PC/Niger activities through the decades
• Panel discussion with locals who have been affected by Volunteers (government officials, businessmen, NGO leaders, teachers, etc.), staff and current Volunteers
• 'Commercial' breaks in the discussion that would include (1) slideshows of Volunteers in action; (2) videos of more recent Peace Corps activities; and (3) previous Swearing-In footage from media outlets

To make this successful, we are asking for photos from all RPCVs that highlight Volunteer work and/or Nigerien culture. These photos will be arranged into slideshows (by decade) and will be organized and narrated by current Volunteers, in local languages.

If you have any photos you would like to have showcased, please send them to us in electronic format if possible. We realize that older photos will be in print or slide form, but if you have the capacity to scan them, this would be ideal. If you do not have the capacity, you may still submit print copies and we can scan them in Niamey. If requested, we can return these photos to you afterwards. Along with each photo, please include (1) a brief caption that denotes year, (2) names of Volunteers/Nigeriens (if known) pictured, (3) area of country, and (4) brief description of activity.

Photos should either be e-mailed to Christopher Burns (cburns@ne.peacecorps.gov) or sent via diplomatic pouch in print form or on CD-ROM/DVD to:

Christopher Burns
2420 Niamey Place
Dulles, VA 20189-2420

We respectfully request that photos be submitted by June 30, 2007, in order to give the Volunteers enough time to turn them into slideshows and record the voice-overs.

In addition to the television program, Peace Corps will have a porte ouverte the day of the show, to serve as a birthday celebration. During this open house, Peace Corps will have:

• Stands (by sector) highlighting Volunteer activities
• Posters and photo displays
• Media coverage
• Presentations from key guests throughout the country

If there are returned Volunteers interested in coming back to Niger for this event, we would welcome this whole-heartedly. It would be particularly meaningful if, in conjunction with a trip to Niger, we could include your former counterparts in this celebration since, after all, it's about the sustained (or rekindled) relationships.

We are also considering other commemorative activities including a 45th anniversary pagne; hardbound 'photo books' that would include a selection of the best photos from RPCV submissions, arranged by decade; and t-shirts. Of course, with a limited (ok, make that nonexistent) budget, our ability to do these would be contingent on the support (including financial) of the RPCV community. To this extent, we would like to gauge your interest in these products for possible sale.

As a Goal 3 component to this celebration, we are interested in having an American media outlet document your work in Niger over the years. We would work through our Office of Communications and the Press Office in Washington, DC, but we also request assistance from you. If you have contacts with media outlets and would like to assist in setting this up, please let us know.

In all, this is an exciting time for us at Peace Corps/Niger and we hope you will participate in some capacity. Please send comments and thoughts to Christopher Burns (cburns@ne.peacecorps.gov). We look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Mary M. Abrams
Country Director
Peace Corps/Niger