The Peace Corps Lesotho has welcomed back American Peace Corps Volunteers following their evacuation in March 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
American Peace Corps Volunteers are expected to serve alongside community members across the country after all volunteers were evacuated worldwide and their departure marked the first time in the agency’s 60-year history that volunteers were evacuated from all global posts.
Since that time, Peace Corps Lesotho staff and counterparts have continued to engage in the community through Grassroot Soccer (GRS) initiatives focused on life skills, HIV education, and COVID-19 prevention.
Peace Corps Lesotho Country Director, Mrs. Randa Wilkinson expressed their happiness to be part of the historic re-entry of Volunteers in Lesotho, adding that Peace Corps staff around the world have worked to strengthen the foundation of the agency.
“Our staff in Lesotho are excited to welcome this group of Volunteers, to continue the work at the invitation of the Government of Lesotho to work alongside community members on locally prioritized projects and inspire the next generation of global leaders,” she noted.
At the request of the Government of Lesotho, Volunteers will engage in education and health projects, saying Education Volunteers will work to advance literacy, numeracy and life skills based on sexual education (LBSE) in primary schools.
She noted that Health Volunteers’ work will focus on the prevention of new HIV infections amongst adolescents in out-of-school settings, increasing access to gender-equitable care, support, and treatment for adolescents living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) and their families, and supporting the strengthening of health systems to improve youth-friendly services.
For decades, the Peace Corps has engaged in the last mile, critical global health work and the COVID-19 pandemic is no exception.
Mrs. Wilkinson indicated that regardless of the sector they work in, all Peace Corps Volunteers will engage in some form of COVID-19 response and recovery work, through either primary or secondary projects.
She mentioned that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they will also support local partners’ efforts to disseminate COVID-19 mitigation information and promote access to vaccinations in alignment with Ministry of Health guidance.
”Together, volunteers will work alongside community members to make progress on the biggest development challenge the world has faced in more than a century,” said Mrs. Wilkinson.
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 Americans have served in 142 countries worldwide.
From 1967 to March 2020, 2,607 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Lesotho, working on projects in education, health, and economic development.
Source: LENA 30/09/2022
