Friday, June 15, 2007

[Advocacy news] Volunteer interpreter in DC wanted

Guinea RPCV Jamaica Corker writes:

Oxfam America and the National Peace Corps Association [NPCA] are looking for a volunteer interpreter who is comfortable disucssing issues around agriculture, in English and in French, for advocacy visits to the Hill on June 28 and/or June 29. The interpreter will accompany Haoua Traore, a female farming advisor who works with the National Union of Cotton Producers in Burkina Faso, as part of advocacy efforts around the 2007 US Farm Bill renewal. A recently returned RPCV or anyone familiar with ag issues in West Africa, and who remembers the basics in French, would be great.

If you are interested and can be of assistance on either of those days, please contact Jonathan Pearson at NPCA by Tuesday, June 19: jonathan@rpcv.org or 202-293-7728, ext. 21.

The U.S. Farm Bill is all-encompassing and as currently structured detrimentally affects many people—not only small American farmers but also cotton producers in countries throughout West Africa, whose farmers cannot effectively compete on the world market flooded with heavily subsidized American and European cotton. More information on the Farm Bill is attached in a flier and you can read more about it by visiting OXFAM’s website: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/agriculture.

If you are in the DC area and interested, don't be shy about contacting the NPCA. They are looking for someone with familiarity with the region and general West African agriculture issues, not necessarily someone fluent in Parisian French!

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