Carlos Jean-Baptiste: When the earthquake hit Haiti, I started trying to find ways to help.
Carlos Jean-Baptiste Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya (2006–08) and Zambia (2008–09) | Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Haiti (2010) As told to Ellery Pollard Photo: Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake: Carlos Jean-Baptiste, in blue shirt, assisting with relief. Courtesy Carlos Jean-Baptiste I identify as a first-generation Haitian American, born of an immigrant mother. I grew up in a community where my grade school was 50 percent first-generation American, so I experienced the world through these relationships. I was always aware of how big the world is. Peace Corps was a path to experience it firsthand, and it helped...
Yemi Oshodi: “I understood quickly that I couldn’t do it on my own.”
Yemi Oshodi Peace Corps Volunteer in Swaziland (2003–05) | Peace Corps Response Volunteer in St. Lucia (2011–12) | Peace Corps Staff (2011 to present) As told to Sarah Steindl Photo: Yemi Oshodi in April 2021, speaking to communities in the Eastern Caribbean after the eruption of La Soufrière, on the main island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Go back a decade: I had about eight years of experience in public health — advocacy, international policy, HIV/AIDS work. I wanted to give back in a similar way that I had as a Volunteer in Swaziland 2003–05. I looked into...
Miguelina Cuevas-Post: “It would be wonderful if the world didn’t need a Peace Corps.”
Miguelina Cuevas-Post Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica (1976–78) and Belize (2011–13) | Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Jamaica (2016–17) and Belize (2017) As told to Ellery Pollard Photo: Students in a Jamaican school where Volunteer Miguelina Cuevas-Post served. Courtesy Miguelina Cuevas-Post I come from a family that is multiethnic and multicultural, so an appreciation of different cultures was ingrained in me. My husband, Kenneth Post, and I both served two-year terms in Jamaica in the ’70s — that’s how we met. We got married there, and our oldest daughter, Tina, was born while we were serving. Ken and...
Annie Eng: One month into work in Georgia, I was evacuated.
Annie Eng Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia (2020) | Peace Corps Virtual Service Pilot Program (2020–21) As told to Sarah Steindl Illustration courtesy Work by For Better Future, a Georgian NGO, whose projects include supporting women entrepreneurs. I had a friend in Ukraine who was a two-year Volunteer, and seeing all he was doing there inspired me. One day, I was browsing and saw Peace Corps Response Service. I took a one-year leave of absence from my job in New York, and I arrived in Georgia in February 2020. I went through orientation, then headed to work with...
Hilliard Hicks: Reviving Sustainable Aquaculture in the Philippines
Hilliard Hicks Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa (2014–16) | Peace Corps Response Volunteer in the Philippines (2019–20) By Hilliard Hicks Photo: Marine biology students conduct quadrat seagrass surveys in the Philippines. Courtesy Hillard Hicks In 2020 the world was thrust into a pandemic, which caused more than 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers to suddenly return home from their adopted communities around the world. I was one of them. During my first Peace Corps assignment, I served as an education Volunteer in South Africa. After service, I went to graduate school at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in...
Towela Nyika: “We are trying to achieve health for all.”
Towela Nyika Peace Corps Staff in Malawi (2013–present) As told to Emi Krishnamurthy I began with the Peace Corps in 2013 with the Global Health Service Partnership, a public-private partnership to place healthcare professionals as adjunct faculty in medical and nursing schools. When that program ended in 2018, I helped start Advancing Health Professionals, which combines volunteer work with strengthening health systems. In Malawi, we bring in highly skilled health professionals from the U.S. who work with institutions of higher learning, training the next generation of health workers. We focus on bridging health theory into practice, and promoting...
Dallas Smith: From experts, I learned knowledge passed along generations.
Dallas Smith Peace Corps Volunteer in Cambodia (2017–19) | Peace Corps Response Volunteer in Malawi (2019–20) As told to Emi Krishnamurthy Photo: Baobab tree — used for food and medicine. Photo by Dallas Smith While earning my Doctor of Pharmacy in the States, I spent a month in India learning about what’s known as traditional and complementary medicine. Then, in Cambodia, I saw it utilized to heal people, using local culture and expertise. I brought that perspective into Malawi, but I took it one step further: I know it works, but why? How do we make it better?...
Public Health Is Global Health
In 2019, Peace Corps Response launched the Advancing Health Professionals program. Then the pandemic hit. By Sarah Steindl Advancing Health Professionals (AHP) is designed to strengthen health systems in five countries. Photo courtesy Peace Corps Bolstering public health in communities where Volunteers serve has been part of Peace Corps since the beginning. In 2019, under the aegis of Peace Corps Response, the agency launched Advancing Health Professionals (AHP), a refocused effort to train healthcare professionals and improve healthcare systems in the African nations of Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Liberia, and Eswatini. The program came online just months before COVID-19...
Beginning with Belize: Peace Corps Takes Steps to Return to Service Overseas
The Peace Corps announced on June 30 that it was a step closer to returning Volunteers to overseas service — starting with Belize. By NPCA Staff Photography by Emily Gale. Pictured here: BRO club members, hijinks, and a freshly painted world map in 2019 The Peace Corps announced on June 30 that it was a step closer to returning Volunteers to overseas service — starting with Belize. With a set of health, safety, and security criteria met for the post, Volunteers could arrive as early as this fall. At the request of the government of Belize, Volunteers will...
Peace Corps Response: Snapshots from the First Quarter Century
In 2021 Peace Corps Response marks a quarter century since its founding. Some moments that have defined it. Photo: Community members in a village near Zomba, Malawi, learn to sew reusable sanitary pads for girls. Sheila Matsuda captured the moment as a Response Volunteer in Malawi 2018–19. Crisis Corps was launched in 1996. At the outset, Volunteers were deployed to respond to natural disasters and assist with relief in the aftermath of violence. Over the years, the program expanded in scope, and Volunteers are now sent to meet a variety of targeted needs in communities around the world. In...