Peace Corps Commemorative
The Peace Corps program was established by Executive Order 10924, which was issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961. The program was legislatively authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). Between 1961 and 2013, over 215,000 Americans joined the Peace Corps. The National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit organization for Peace Corps alumni, established the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to advocate for a commemorative to honor the mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded.
Seed Global Health
The Global Health Service Partnership was developed from efforts dating back more than half a century. Building on a vision outlined in a 2 am speech, U.S. President John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps by Executive Order in 1961. In 1979, Senator Javits proposed the International Health Act of 1979, which aimed to build an International Health Service program. The act never passed. Finally, in 2003, the US government established the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the first major health program of its scale. This established a need for increased human resources to help execute the program. In 2005, the Institute of Medicine released its influential report, Healer’s Abroad: Americans Responding to the Human Resource Crisis in HIV/AIDS, which detailed a Global Health Service Corps that would send full-time, paid professionals abroad not only to address in-country health care needs, but also to offer clinical, technical, and managerial guidance to foreign health care workers. That same year, Senator William Frist (R, Tennessee) introduced a bill in 2005 which legislated for a Global Health Corps “…to improve the health, welfare, and development of communities in select foreign countries and regions…” To achieve this goal, the Global Health Corps would send volunteers abroad to address a range of needs, including but not limited to, health care treatment and education, hygiene and food preparation training, disease surveillance, and technical health support.