Interview with Elizabeth Yi, October 23, 2020
Project: Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project
Interview Summary
Elizabeth Yi served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Benin in a Rural Community Development and Health Education program from 1998-2000. She discusses her work as a community health worker with the Social Promotion Center in the town of Zagnanado, Zou Department, including her relationships with co-workers and the women they served. She talks about the role of women in Benin at the time and the universal struggles of people regardless of where they live. She also discusses the sexual advances by men that she had to deal with as a young single woman and that, as a Korean American, she was oftentimes mistaken for a person from China or a masseuse or sex worker when she was in a big city. She discusses her post-Peace Corps healthcare and research career in the U.S. and abroad and speaking to students as part of the Paul D. Coverdell World Wise Schools program. She ends the interview with an impassioned call for greater international and community service to shape who we are as Americans.Interview Accession
Interviewee Name
Interviewer Name
Interview Date
Interview Keyword
Benin (Country of service) Peace Corps Volunteer Job: Rural Community Development 1998-2000 (Date of service) Women’s health Third Goal activities Diversity in the Peace Corps Call for international and domestic service Women’s impact Peace Corps Volunteer Job: Health education Peace Corps Volunteer Job: Community Development Korean AmericansInterview Rights
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All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.
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Yi, Elizabeth Interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. 23 Oct. 2020. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Yi, E. (2020, October 23). Interview by E. Ganzglass. Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Yi, Elizabeth, interview by Evelyn Ganzglass. October 23, 2020, Peace Corps: The Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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