Kathmandu: Ten Peace Corps Response Volunteers were sworn in by the Peace Corps Deputy Director David E White Jr, Ambassador Dean R Thompson, and the Peace Corps/Nepal Country Director Troy Kofroth to begin their service in Nepal.
This is the first ever group of Response Volunteers to serve in Nepal. The Peace Corps Response Program brings US citizen Volunteers with experience targeted to complete 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 Bagmati and Gandaki provinces; and improving research activities at agriculture colleges in Gandaki and Lumbini provinces. The Response Volunteers will collaborate with their host organizations and community members on locally prioritized 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, Peace Corps Response Volunteers need to integrate into their communities, build relationships, and be 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 fifty Peace Corps Volunteers serving in eight districts of Nepal.
Since US President John F Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 240,000 Volunteers have served in 144 countries worldwide.
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