GRANDSON CARRIES ON CARTER FAMILY PEACE CORPS TRADITION
USIA
USIS Washington File
09 January 1998
GRANDSON CARRIES ON CARTER FAMILY PEACE CORPS TRADITION
(Jason follows path of great-grandmother Lillian) (770)
By Jim Fisher-Thompson
USIA Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- With his service as a Peace Corps volunteer to South
Africa, Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, is
following in the footsteps of his great-grandmother Lillian, who
served as a Peace Corps volunteer more than 30 years ago in India.
Young Carter, the son of President Carter's son Jack, recently
completed preliminary training in the United States and will depart
January 16 along with 40 other volunteers for South Africa, where he
will serve for two years as a community development worker.
According to a Peace Corps spokesman, this is only the second
contingent of volunteers to go to South Africa since October 1994,
when President Nelson Mandela, during a visit to the White House,
discussed with President Bill Clinton ways to aid South Africans
grappling with social and economic development challenges.
Established by President John Kennedy in 1961, the Peace Corps now has
6,500 volunteers. They work in 85 nations as English, mathematics, and
science teachers; health workers; and business, environment, and rural
development specialists. Thirty-eight percent of those volunteers work
in Africa. Since its inception, 150,000 Americans have served abroad
as volunteers for the agency.
Jason Carter's great-grandmother, Lillian Carter, served as a
volunteer nurse for the Peace Corps in India from 1966 to 1968. Known
to her friends as "Miss Lillian," she joined the volunteer agency at
68 years of age. President Carter, who often said he was proud of the
longtime support his mother gave to civil rights and women's causes,
called her "the most influential woman in my life."
Jason, who hopes to follow in the same path of public service that his
father, grandfather, and great-grandmother have taken, is at age 22
much closer to the average age of current Peace Corps volunteers.
However, agency records reveal that 8 percent of its volunteers still
are over the age of 50.
The young Carter, who recently told journalists that he is "really
excited" about his upcoming tour, explained that he "will be acting as
a resource to schoolteachers and principals in a rural community to
increase the school's participation in the community and the
community's involvement in the school."
Last May, Carter graduated from Duke University, where he earned a
bachelor's degree in political science and philosophy. He then worked
for The Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and spent a month observing
community development efforts in war-torn Liberia.
Noting that "not enough people in the U.S. pay attention to people in
other parts of the world, especially Africa," Carter said, "I hope to
be able to serve my country in a way that both helps me grow as a
person and impacts others in a positive way."
Speaking for South African Ambassador Franklin Sonn, who is currently
traveling, Deputy Chief of Mission Ndumiso Ntshinga told the U.S.
Information Agency that "South Africa really appreciates the Peace
Corps' commitment to the development and betterment of the less
fortunate in our country."
Ntshinga added that Jason Carter's service in South Africa will
provide "evidence enough that President Carter's efforts to aid Africa
will continue beyond his generation."
Commenting on the claim by some commentators that Peace Corps
assistance is inappropriate for South Africa, the wealthiest nation on
the continent, the diplomat said, "Anyone who argues from that
perspective is overlooking some fundamental problems which we have in
South Africa.
"One has to understand," he explained, that "yes, South Africa is an
industrialized country, but at the same time it is a country that has
two worlds in one" -- one of wealth and one of poverty. "Needless to
say, the largest number of South Africans live in abject poverty and
there is a serious shortage of skills, in part because we are still
living the legacy of the [apartheid] past."
To help build on what a Peace Corps spokesman called "the momentous
partnership" that exists between his agency and South Africa, the
Peace Corps will host a South African celebration on January 14 in
Atlanta. It will feature speeches by Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan;
its first director, Sargent Shriver; and Georgia Congressman John
Lewis, as well as performances by the Nigerian singer Nneka and the
Morehouse University glee club, presenting South African songs.
The Peace Corps also will sponsor a symposium on South Africa and its
development needs at Emory University. Participants will include
Ambassador Sonn, Gearan, Africare Executive Director C. Payne Lucas,
and former CNN Africa correspondent Gary Streiker.