Kathmandu, May 17: Ten Peace Corps Response Volunteers have been sworn in becoming the first ever group of Response Volunteers to serve in Nepal. The Peace Corps Deputy Director David E. White Jr., U.S. Ambassador to Nepal Dean R. Thompson, and the Peace Corps/Nepal Country Director Troy Kofroth jointly administered an oath to them amid a function here.
The Peace Corps Response Program brings U.S. citizen Volunteers with experience targeting the completion of short-term (e.g., nine-twelve months), high-impact service assignments identified by the Government of Nepal.
The new Response Volunteers will serve in three sectors: promoting rural tourism in Gandaki province; supporting information technology and e-learning initiatives at government schools in Bagmati and Gandaki provinces; and improving research activities at agriculture colleges in Gandaki and Lumbini provinces.
The Response Volunteers will collaborate with their host organisations and community members on locally prioritised projects that build relationships, promote knowledge exchange, and make a lasting and measurable impact.
“This is the start of a Peace Corps Response program, a program in which more experienced US citizen Volunteers respond to specific needs articulated by our partners in the Government of Nepal,” said Ambassador Thompson.
Like the traditional two-year Volunteer Program, the Peace Corps Response Volunteers need to integrate into their communities, build relationships, and be the role model representatives of the United States in Nepal.
These ten Response Volunteers join the nearly 4,000 Peace Corps Volunteers who have come to serve in Nepal since 1962 when the governments of Nepal and the United States of America signed an agreement to establish the Peace Corps program here. With this new group, there is now a total of 50 Peace Corps Volunteers serving in eight districts of Nepal.
The Peace Corps is an international service network of Volunteers, community members, host country partners and staff who are driven by the agency’s mission of world peace and friendship.
At the invitation of governments around the world, Peace Corps Volunteers work alongside community members on locally prioritized projects in the areas of education, health, environment, agriculture, community economic development, and youth development.
Through service, members of the Peace Corps network develop transferable skills and hone intercultural competencies that position them to be the next generation of global leaders. Since President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 240,000 Volunteers have served in 144 countries worldwide.
