Peace Corps Polyglot

RPCV Visionary Brings Innovative Eyewear to Liberia

This photo may bring back nightmarish memories of those Peace Corps replacement glasses volunteers used to receive!  But in fact, it represents a potential dream come true for up to a billion people.

One billion is the estimated number of people with poor vision in rural communities around the world who don't have access to eyecare services.  But RPCV Nancy Wallace of Annapolis, Maryland is involved in an innovative enterprise to address the challenge.

It all began in Liberia, where Nancy served as a Peace Corps Response volunteer from 2008 - 2009.  A friend connected her with Kevin White, the Executive Director of Global Vision 2020, an international organization working to prevent avoidable blindness.  One of the organization's projects involves the distribution of self-adjusting eyeglasses.  The glasses are designed to allow users to turn a dial on the side of each lens to correct their own vision in regions that do not have access to eye care professionals.

With the hope that glasses could be distributed through existing local networks, Nancy jumped at the invitation when White asked her if a pilot project could be launched at the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute.  In September, a training was held for 40 volunteers to distribute glasses.  An initial scanning of 1,200 teachers, students and market women revealed that 700 were in need of (and received) glasses to correct their vision.

Featured above with NPCA Advocacy Coordinator Jonathan Pearson (l) and Tom Jacobs (r), host of the annual Maryland RPCV summer picnic, Nancy attended the gathering to share the experience of trying on the spectacles and urge fellow RPCVs to help with the initiative.  "It's incredible to watch", she says.  "For people in other countries who don't even know they need glasses, and to see their reaction when the world around them comes into focus.  It's exciting!"

Peace Corps Returns to Liberia

Peace Corps officially announced that it is returning to Liberia nearly 20 years after suspending the program there.  There will be an opening ceremony in which Peace Corps Director Ronald A. Tschetter will swear in 12 new Peace Corps Response Volunteers to work on education and health projects on Monday, Oct. 27.  Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will attend the ceremony, in addition to several other prominent Peace Corps and Liberia connected people.

Peace Corps Response program offers short-term humanitarian assistance from Volunteers who have previously served.  In Liberia, Volunteers will be assigned to rural teacher training institutes where they will mentor administrators charged with revitalizing Liberia’s teacher training infrastructure, while others will work with local libraries, parent teacher associations, local high schools, and health training programs.

Over 4,400 Peace Corps Volunteers served in Liberia from 1962 to 1990, until the program was suspended due to the Liberian civil war.  This batch of Volunteers will serve for eight months while expanding to include up to 34 Volunteers by the end of 2009 and Peace Corps will carefully follow progress to see if it can be transformed from a Peace Corps Response program into a regular two-year program for Peace Corps Volunteers.

Peace Corps Reopens Program in Liberia

Exciting News! Peace Corps officially announced the plan to reopen its program in Liberia in September 2008. The Peace Corps, which sent its first Volunteers to Liberia in 1962, has been absent from the country for nearly two decades due to the Liberian civil war. This decision is a result of recent periods of peace in Liberia which have led the Peace Corps to conclude that it is once again safe to send Volunteers into the country.

Pat Reilly, Vice President of Friends of Liberia, an organization which strongly advocated for the program's renewal, had this to say about the announcment:

Friends of Liberia is very excited about the reentry of Peace Corps into Liberia. We have been advocating for Crisis Corps and now Peace Corps Response in Liberia for almost a decade. For 30 years until the outbreak of war at the end of 1989, PCVs worked at every level of Liberian society in a wide range of development activities, particularly education. When Friends of Liberia operated in Liberia throughout the war, we always benefitted from the association with Peace Corps, which Liberians consider the gold-standard in foreign assistance. We look forward to supporting the new volunteers in any way we can and welcoming them as members upon their completion of service.

The Peace Corps will begin serving in Liberia again through a program called Peace Corps Response. The program allows Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to re-enroll and return to the field for short-term, high-impact assignments, lasting between three and six months. Candidates will be expected to draw upon the language, technical and cross-cultural skills they gained through their previous Peace Corps experience in order to be immediately effective.

Peace Corps Reponse Volunteers in Liberia will be working specifically in the Education Sector. This program was directly requested by Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who in 2006 wrote a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Donald E. Booth stating, "the Government of Liberia requests the re-establishment of the Peace Corps program in Liberia. We understand that the Peace Corps has a program [Peace Corps Reponse] which allows experienced Volunteers to serve for short periods to perform high-impact work. Such short-term projects aimed at raising the capacities and capabilities of Liberian teachers would have a profound impact upon civil society as a whole." The Peace Corps is now actively recruiting Volunteers with experience in the following fields: teacher training, curriculum development, classrom teaching, education administration, and education policy assistance.

To learn more about the program in Liberia and apply to be a Peace Corps Reponse Volunteer click here.