Women's History Month: Carol Bellamy

Carol Bellamy, 1942-

OK. let's get this out of the way because it will become a digression. Carol Bellamy was director of the Peace Corps--the first director who was actually a volunteer herself. She was a volunteer in Guatemala from 1963-1965 and Director 1993-1995. The librarian who is writing this was also a Peace Corps volunteer (1989-1991). The director then was Georgia's own Paul Coverdell.

Carol Bellamy has had a distinguished career in the private and the public sector. She has been a corporate lawyer, an investment banker, an elected representative in city and state government, director of the Peace Corps, and Director of UNICEF (the children's agency of the United Nations), where she served with distinction and devotion. After serving her 2 terms as Director, she was a leader of several other NGOs, notably World Learning and the Global Partnership for Education. 

Bellamy is an ardent proponent for welfare and education and children, and women's empowerment. And this not only in peaceful times but during crisis, war, and emergencies. A UNICEF survey published in 1999 found an increase in child mortality in Iraq, which has been under sanctions imposed after their invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Ms. Bellamy visited Iraq and her remarks added fuel to the UN Security Council debate about whether to ease sanctions against Iraq. Bellamy is quoted as saying "Our concern is that [sanctions] should be designed and implemented in such a way as to avoid a negative impact on children."

In the words of someone who worked with UNICEF Iraq under Bellamy's directorship, "she was the role model for women operating under the UN."

Resources

Sender, Aaron J. “Carol Bellamy.” Discover, vol. 25, no. 11, Nov. 2004, pp. 76–77. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=a9h&AN=14617455&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=ath2

Bellamy, Carol. “A Conversation on Children.” UN Chronicle, vol. 39, no. 2, June 2002, p. 10. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=fth&AN=9714530&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=ath2

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