"I think their favorite part of the tour though was playing on the beach because many of them had never seen the ocean before.”
A group of Peace Corps Volunteers in Namibia recently came together in collaboration with a local nonprofit organization to lead a week-long educational tour of the country for 40 at-risk youth. The tour is an annual initiative led by Peace Corps Namibia’s diversity committee aimed at providing orphans and marginalized youth — many of whom have never traveled outside of their own community — with the opportunity to explore Namibia, develop a respect and appreciation for other local cultures, and build healthy lifestyle and leadership skills.
Peace Corps Volunteer Juliette Keeley worked with a group of young women during her service in Guinea to publish a magazine for girls that tackles tough issues routinely faced by young women in the country. The magazine, Aicha, addresses topics of interest to young women in the community – including education, fashion, agriculture, cooking and women’s rights – as well as more sensitive topics like women’s health, HIV/AIDS, early marriage and relationships.
Aaaaaaaaaaaand we’re back!
Apologies, but we will not be posting updates or responding to comments during the government shutdown. We’ll be back as soon as possible!
Peace Corps Volunteers in China organized a prom party at the Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics for over 300 students from three different universities in Lanzhou.
Women living along the shores of Lake Victoria whose livelihood depends on trading fresh fish are exceptionally vulnerable to contracting HIV. In order to acquire fresh fish daily, the women are often pressured into having sex with the fishermen who supply the fish. It is not uncommon for the fishermen to maintain several such relationships simultaneously with women at different beaches where they land with their fish. As such, women fish traders are extremely susceptible to contracting HIV.
A couple of years ago, two Peace Corps Volunteers – Dominik Mucklow (an Education Volunteer, 2009-11) and Michael Geilhufe (a Community Economic Development Volunteer, 2010-12) – who lived near Lake Victoria decided to do something to help these women. With support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), they assisted a group of women fish traders to acquire their own fishing boats. The women then employed men to go fishing using these boats. This simple advancement allowed the women to be free from sexual exploitation in order to secure their fish supply.
A third Volunteer, Samantha Slater (a Community Economic Development Volunteer, 2011-13) just completed her service. Samantha dedicated her work to helping the women with the business aspects of operating the boats and their fish trade. The women have since obtained additional loans to purchase new nets or replace damaged nets. They were also taught how to keep sound financial records and manage the business well enough to be able to pay back their loans in a timely way. Recently-arrived Volunteer Lori Armstrong will continue working on good business practices with the women. The work that these volunteers initiated has generated significant interest in development circles, and there is now a clear push to expand this “No Sex For Fish” initiative to other beaches along Lake Victoria. With additional support, this simple initiative promises to completely re-write the gender relationships that rule Lake Victoria’s fishing industry today.
Acting-director Carrie Hessler-Radelet gets ready to throw out the first pitch at the @Nationals vs @Braves game during #PeaceCorps Night at #Nationals Park #baseball #MLB #RPCV
Albania girls have fun at an English camp organized by Peace Corps Volunteers that gave students an opportunity to practice speaking the language with native speakers and develop creative thinking skills. #Albania #EasternEurope #fun #girls #camp #language #laughter #creativity #peacecorps #latergram
Peace Corps Volunteer Ginger Anderson works with participants at Camp TechKobwa. Created by Peace Corps Volunteers in Rwanda, Camp TechKobwa focused on empowerment for girls through gaining skills and confidence using computers and media technology. The camp encouraged young women to become active citizens by building their self-esteem and confidence, and helped them start computer and media clubs with their information and communication technology teachers upon returning to their schools. #Africa #Rwanda #camp #genderequality #girls #women #empowerment #computers #technology #media #USAID #latergram
"The photo shows the owner of the home we stayed in for the two years of our Peace Corps service. My parents sent me the Mad magazine and I shared it with him. I don’t know that he understood the humor of Mad, but he seemed interested. The photo was taken in the yard of the home we lived in looking north toward the volcano Kanlaon from which the town gets its name." - Peace Corps Volunteer Richard Johnsen (Philippines - 1964) #madmagazine #funny #Asia #Philippines #peacecorps #culture #culturalexchange #throwbackthursday #tbt #1960s
May Peace Be With You!
"Photo was taken in Kyrgyzstan on August 9th, 2012. We had a 2 week summer camp that taught our kids about leadership and creativity. Each day at camp was a dress up day and the day this photo was taken was Hippie Day!" - Peace Corps Education Volunteer Casey Palmer
Some of the lessons we had during camp.
Others included: Life Tree (values and goals), Immune System education, Finger Painting Stories, Letter to Self, Decision Making, etc.
Also everyday after lunch, we had an hour of “camper time” where the campers got to choose from a variety of activities such as, volleyball, coloring, frisbee, origami, soccer, water color painting, friendship bracelet making (super popular with all campers), and taekwondo.
Check out our daily schedule for all the lessons and activities we did.
- Meghan
PC YiD El Salvador 2013 (via arielinelsalvador)
The peaceful quote from Sargent Shriver, one of our founders and the first director of Peace Corps, that greets all visitors to PCHQ in Washington, DC #peace #quote #inspiration #washington #DC #peacecorps #shriver
