Atiku sets record, gives $750k to US peace corps

The United States National Peace Corps Association, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization supporting Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Peace Corps community, announced today it has received $750,000 from former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar to fund a new initiative featuring global leaders who will discuss Peace Corps’s impact.

It is the largest individual gift in the association’s 33-year history.

“The Peace Corps has always been about bringing people from different backgrounds together to work on some of the most difficult global problems,” said Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association. “Thanks to this generous gift, we’ll be able to take that concept a step further and bring in the expertise of some key leaders who’ve been influenced by the Peace Corps to talk at depth about these issues.”

The donation will endow the Global Leaders Program, a regular series of discussions initiated by the National Peace Corps Association featuring notable figures, influenced by the Peace Corps from the worlds of politics, business and society. Through this new program, the association will put a spotlight on host-country nationals who embody the values of the Peace Corps, which Quigley said is an important shift away from only telling about the impact on Peace Corps Volunteers, a story told for the last 50 years.

The first Global Leaders Program, held prior to the association’s 2011 gala, featured former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and Abubakar on a panel moderated by noted journalist Bill Moyers.

Abubakar, Nigeria’s vice president from 1999 to 2007, Abubakar has a long history of philanthropy, having given more than $300 million to support educational and health-related organizations in Nigeria, including founding the American University of Nigeria in 2005 through a partnership with American University in Washington, D.C.

A statement by the Peace Corps described Abubakar as its longtime fan, often speaking eloquently about four volunteers who affected his life and his appreciation of the program. In 2011, he received the first Harris Wofford Global Citizen Award, named for the former U.S. Senator and special assistant to U.S. President John F. Kennedy who was instrumental in the formation of the Peace Corps.