Interview with Caroline MacKenzie, January 19, 2023

Interview Summary

Caroline MacKenzie served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in a community development program in Luhansk Ukraine from 2010-12. She joined at 62 responding to a recruitment PSA on public radio. She discusses working with disabled children who are kept out of schools because of cultural attitudes about disabled people resulting in lack of accommodations in schools and elsewhere. She talks about the interesting cross-cultural conversations she had teaching conversational English to adults at a weekly English Club. She discusses different attitudes among Ukrainian and Russian-speaking populations and economic and living conditions. She also talks about the current war and assistance provided by Ukraine RPCVs. She discusses leading RPCV’s Hawaii, which helps with recruitment and provides grant and other support for PCVs from Hawaii, and her policy advocacy for Peace Corps. In addition, she talks about the network of senior PCVs in Ukraine and urges older people to join the Peace Crops.

Interview Keyword

Peace Corps (US) Ukraine (Country of Service) Community Development (Peace Corps program) 2010-12 (years of service) Peace Corps recruitment older PCV SNAG, Senior Networking Action Group (group of senior volunteers who met monthly) Chernihiv ((Чернігів) where training took place) Luhansk ((Луганська) city where she was stationed) Kyiv ((Київ) the capital of Ukraine) Post-Soviet Russian and Ukrainian division (historical context) war in Ukraine (historical context) Tetiana Barantsova (Тетяна Баранцова) (Ukrainian counterpart and UN awardee for work on behalf of Ukrainians with disabilities.)

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