US Peace Corps volunteers return to the Philippines
BUTUAN CITY -- Nearly forty American volunteers arrived in the Philippines on Monday (January 30) to resume the U.S. Peace Corps’ work in the sectors of education, youth development, and coastal resource management for the benefit of communities across Luzon and Visayas.
The 37 newly arrived volunteers are the 279th U.S. Peace Corps batch to serve in the Philippines since 1961. At the invitation of the Philippine government, the volunteers will fulfill a range of roles requested by host communities for the coming 27 months. These roles include co-teaching English in public elementary and secondary schools, serving as youth development facilitators in Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-accredited organizations and residential shelters, and supporting local governments in establishing marine protected areas and implementing coastal resource management plans.
Starting in April, the American volunteers will be deployed to their permanent sites in Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Zambales, La Union, Laguna, Benguet, Ilocos Sur, Camarines Sur, Bohol, Cebu, Capiz, and Negros Oriental. They will undertake two months of language, technical, and cultural training prior to deployment.
Additional volunteers will arrive in the Philippines
in May, August, and September as the U.S. Peace Corps ramps back up its
operations this year.
“We are thrilled to welcome the first group
of American Peace Corps volunteers to the Philippines since the start of the
pandemic,” U.S. Peace Corps Country Director Jenner Edelman
said. “We are ready to meet this historic moment with our community
partners and staff.”
The U.S. Peace Corps suspended its global
operations and repatriated American volunteers from more than 60 countries, including
from the Philippines, in March 2020 due to the COVID-19
pandemic. Despite the absence of American volunteers, U.S. Peace
Corps staff in the Philippines continued to work closely with the Philippine
government and other local partners to vaccinate over 27,000 Filipinos against
COVID-19, support nationwide distance learning, prepare schools for safe
resumption of face-to-face classes, introduce alternative income-generating
activities to communities recovering from the pandemic, and strengthen community-level
volunteerism.
For decades, the U.S. Peace Corps has engaged
in critical global health work, and the COVID-19 pandemic is no
exception. American Peace Corps volunteers will continue to work
alongside community members to make progress on the biggest development
challenge the world has faced in more than a century.
Peace Corps Philippines is the United States
Government’s premier volunteer program in the Philippines. Since
1961, over 9,300 Peace Corps Volunteers have worked alongside Filipino
community members in support of government and community development
priorities. For more than six decades, Peace Corps Philippines
staff and volunteers have served as co-teachers, youth development
facilitators, environmental experts, or filled other roles requested by the
Philippine government and host communities. (US Embassy in the
Philippines/DMNR/PIA-Caraga)
