i' 4I f A i I 4 'I 4A ELSEWHERE IN THE PEACE CORPS WORLD: NEW COUNTRIES AND NEW CHALLENGES Peace Corps growth took a dramatic upward spiral after the organization's fifth birthday on March 1, 1966. In its sixth year of operations, the Peace Corps announced or implemented new programs for 13 nations and territories, including Micronesia and Polynesia reported on else- where in this edition. Welcomed to the Peace Corps family of nations were: AFRICA CHAD - Once part of old French Equatorial Africa, this new nation, carved largely out of desert, welcomed the Peace Corps in September when 33 Volunteers arrived to serve as English teachers and work in land reclamation in the swampy Lake Chad region and in a medical train- ing program. The health program - aimed at retrain- ing Chadian hospital personnel and ex- panding a school health project - will probably require additional Volunteers late in 1967; it is presently contemplated that Volunteer candidates for this program will begin training in the fall. To man the program, the Peace Corps seeks reg- istered nurses, sanitarians and liberal arts graduates, the latter to serve as public health educators. LESOTHO - Formerly the British col- ony of Basutoland, Lesotho achieved its in- dependence last October. Now it faces one of the most difficult development struggles on the African continent. Completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa (to which one-sixth of its 900,000 population have migrated to work as farm laborers and miners), the tiny mountainous nation has requested Peace Corps help in expanding its educational system and improving basic health serv- ices and agricultural production. Of the 88 Volunteers requested, 50 will teach in secondary schools and teacher- training colleges. Others will work in rural development and public works such as clinics, village water supplies and anti- erosion dams. A health group will staff baby clinics, work with mothers to improve their nu- tritional and domestic skills and help dis- tribute food supplies. A few Volunteers with agricultural backgrounds will work with credit and marketing cooperatives. The Volunteer skills required include mostly liberal arts graduates for the teach- ing, rural development and health pro- grams; two registered nurses and a trained health educator, and a Volunteer capable of teaching advanced agricultural science subjects. THE GAMBIA - Eighteen Volunteers, scheduled to arrive in October, will work in projects ranging from teaching in voca- tional training schools and agricultural centers to establishing cattle marketing cooperatives. To meet the request, the Peace Corps needs Volunteers with at least summer experience in construction, repair of heavy diesel and farm equipment, carpentry and furniture-making. Other special skills required include a veterinary laboratory technician to train apprentice Gambian veterinarians, a Vol- unteer to set up an electrical repair shop and to train electrical repairmen, and a Volunteer to supervise a rinderpest inocu- lation campaign. Training begins this sum- mer. MAURITANIA -With 13 Volunteers, Mauritania now has the smallest - and one of the newest - Peace Corps country program anywhere. But expansion is seen likely later this year. The new project, as currently planned, will concentrate on health problems and complement the Volunteers now working in the rural public works programs scat- tered through the Saharan, Arabic-speak- ing former French territory. The Volunteer health workers will staff maternal and baby clinics, and work gen- erally in child welfare. Present plans are for training to start in late summer or early fall. Manpower requirements: Volunteers with liberal arts backgrounds or some knowledge of health matters. UPPER VOLTA - The landlocked West African nation gets its first contingent of Volunteers later this year with the ar- rival of 51 Volunteers trained to help ex- pand established rural development and health programs in the former French territory. The Volunteers will be mainly liberal arts graduates, with some trained health personnel included. They will concentrate on three basic programs: well construction and agricultural extension; general rural development, and a public health education campaign that will improve diagnostic services and extend general hygiene and infant and maternal care services to vil- lages near rural health centers. LIBYA - With its oil exports increas- ing rapidly, Libya faces problems of mod- ernizing a highly traditional society that must cope with material wealth derived from oil which has appeared in a few short years. The first group of 18 Volun- teer teachers is providing English instruc- tion in high schools throughout the nation. BOTSWANA - Faced with urgent manpower needs in all areas of national development, this new Republic last year requested Peace Corps Volunteers to as- sist with educational and community de- velopment programs. Three months after Botswana had exchanged its colonial iden- tity of Bechuanaland for the new role of independent nation -September 30, 1966 - 57 Volunteers were at work in the sparsely settled country. Volunteers are presently teaching in secondary schools and teacher training in- stitutions, providing technical supervision for a major self-help public works program and helping to improve the management and production of cooperatives. PEACE CORPS IS GOING TO P01 Liberal Arts Graduates Will Be Nucleus of New Western S The Peace Corps has been send Volunteers to Polynesia's invited to first inde- pendent nation - Western Samoa. Having demonstrated in Micronesia in the space of only a few months what Vol- unteer catalysts can do in a Pacific Island setting, the Peace Corps will place a new contingent in training for the Samoan assignment beginning this summer, with the likelihood that by that time Volun- teers will also be requested for assignment in other new South Pacific island areas. Peace Corps planners believe it is pos- sible that these projected programs, cou- pled with the existing Micronesian efforts, could add as many as 1,000 new Volun- teers in the Pacific. For Western Samoa, and other pro- jected South Seas assignments, the Peace Corps is seeking mainly liberal arts grad- uates for tasks in teaching, public health, agriculture and community development. * * THE GOAL is to raise thousands of islanders from a life of ill health, poor diet and lack of education in an area of the world that historically has received more romantic than realistic attention. Volunteers in Western Samoa - a nine- island complex supporting a rapidly-grow- ing population of 134,000 - will form a striking force against an array of health problems and obstacles to educational and economic development in a country where: " almost all Samoans suffer from in- testinal parasites and many others are afflicted with tuberculosis, yaws, leprosy and other infectious diseases. " adequate, safe village water supplies are a luxury. " infant mortality is still more common than not and population growth is out- stripping what few advances have been made in improving island life. Against this dismal background are fur- ther hindrances to development: lack of educational facilities and a meager agri- cultural output. THE FIRST VOLUNTEERS to reach Western Samoa this fall will set in motion a - PIX AFRICA: Lesotho's chill mile-high uplands make gaily colored bankets necessary. - BLACK STAR - PIX The Volunteers will take part in a na- tional effort to expand irrigation projects and bring more land under cultivation. They will aid Ceylonese farmers in im- proving cropping methods, using better see& and proper fertilization, and better feeding and management of livestock. Women Volunteers will help village women to improve their nutrition and health practices, particularly for children. Others will work in school-lunch and garden projects. SOUTH KOREA -Peace Corps Vol- unteers - 93 of them - entered South Korea for the first time last fall and began teaching at high schools and technical, agricultural and fisheries schools through- out the nation. This group will be in- creased by an additional 236 Volunteers later this year. Training programs to begin this sum- mer will prepare Volunteers - most of them liberal arts graduates - for assign- ments in education and a pilot health project. About 175 will serve as English teachers in secondary schools; another 61 will establish an experimental health pro- gram on Cheju Island off the southern coast. The latter group will staff local health sub-centers on the island, train Korean health personnel, compile health statistics for use in the long-range planning of health programs, and encourage residents to use the center facilities. The Volunteers also will promote home sanitation and rodent control programs, help set up village water supplies and work generally to sharpen community awareness of health problems. A similar program for mainland -areas is expected to enter the training stage later in the fall. goveri vey th lence - mc be su tors, neers contrc tion, r the bi tems Me tensio with 1 to woi growir Apr Nov Tra Des privat tinues emplo ates. As standii seas d ing po estima fill th 56 co ALl mer tr for t Lesoth in Afr in the Afte Corps over-a] drop-si produc In 1 (Micrc Asia a wana guay i countr teers o are als ing ses Gra apply progra fill. EN' dated ex-box mat, h vital s Peace impact what c ambass Alth basic niques and co in trai They most F posed emphas ASIA: Students at Seoul in South Korea. ASIA CEYLON --- After a three-year ab- sence, Volunteers this year will resume work in this populous island nation off the southern coast of India, assisting Ceylon to attain self-sufficiency in food production. Peace Corps training for the program starts in August and will produce about 80 Volunteers scheduled to arrive abroad in November. Trainees will be recruited from among farmers, young persons with farming experience, liberal arts graduates and agricultural and home economics majors. LATIN AMERICA: Bullock cart plods past presidential palace, Asuncion, Paraguay. LATIN AMERICA PARAGUAY - The most recent South American nation to get Peace Corps help is a land where three-quarters of the people make their livelihood by farming and rais- ing cattle. The first contingent of about 30 Volunteers arrived early this year to conduct agricultural extension and home demonstration projects and to develop further the activities of 4-H type clubs throughout the country. GUYANA - Volunteers first entered the former British Guiana a few months after it became independent in May 1966. More than 40 Volunteers work under the supervision of the Ministry of Works and Hydraulics in road-building, hydro- electric, construction, irrigation and other development projects, and teach in second- ary and technical training schools. WASH DAY IN SAMOA near a seaside 'villa' on Upolu's north shore brings out most of the neighborhood. Thatched roof house lacks walls so occupants work and sleep in full view. Palm frond blinds are dropped only during foul weather. - NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PHOTO (C) 1962