To the editors:
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Before answering their questions, I wanted to know how legitimate they were, because I was skeptical of their claims. Why? I am a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and I still see foreign aid as “poor people in rich countries giving to rich people in poor countries.” I asked the volunteers where Gaia had actual projects (or even contacts with community people) in the third/developing world. They told me to write to Gaia. I did, twice, and also E-mailed–and never got any reply.
Also sometimes bales are glutted. Very often I couldn’t give surplus clothes to Wipeco, because it cost more for Wipeco to pick them up and store them than they were worth. It’s just the nature of the industry. What happened then? They were landfilled.
If your readers want to know about small community-based projects, they can check out the Chicago Area Peace Corps Association Web site at www.capca.org, where they can learn which “country-of-service” groups are supporting projects in the countries volunteers worked in.
