II/ AFRICA: U.S. Peace Corps to Bring New Focus to Food Security

This is a marvelous time for the Peace Corps as we approach our 50th [anniversary]. President Obama has issued a call to service to Americans and Americans have really responded in an extraordinary manner. Applications this year are up 18 percent. We have approximately 15,000 applications for about 4,000 positions right now so we’re seeing extraordinary interest on the part of Americans.

We also teach about 250 languages worldwide and the reason for that is so that Peace Corps volunteers can really reach out and work as partners in communities, with grassroots organizations around the world. One of the things that we try to do is that we want to be a responsive to partnerships. We’re a people-to-people organization. We work directly with communities.

Which African countries have benefited the most from Peace Corps assistance?

I think nearly all African countries have benefited… Historically, the first country that the Peace Corps went into was Ghana. Ghana is going to be the first country to celebrate its 50th anniversary and we have had uninterrupted service… [there] for nearly 50 years.

I think certainly here in South Africa we’re working in areas that are of great interest to the South African government and to South African society, civil society and business. We’re focused on education, we work on HIV/Aids. I had a chance to speak to South African government officials while I was here, in the ministries of health and education, and we want to support national priorities and we will continue to do so. Of course, our role is to work at the community level.

Source: Allafrica