Pretoria - After 61 years of existence and after going through a global pandemic, the 42nd cohort of Peace Corps volunteers has officially been sworn in, to resume the mission of building healthy relationships among countries across the globe.
This as March 2020 was a heartbreaking moment for Peace Corps staff, volunteers, partners and communities committed to the US government’s independent agency and programme, as the agency was forced to evacuate personnel due to the onset of the global pandemic.
Country director for Peace Corps South Africa, James Ham, said he, alongside hundreds of volunteers, were forced to say goodbye to the communities in the various countries they had become fond of, not knowing what the future had in store for them.
Neither did they think it would take more than two years to start bringing volunteers back.
Ham said at the time when countries were closing international borders there were roughly over 7 000 volunteers in 60 countries, with 140 volunteers stationed in South Africa.
“To say the past two and a half years have been a roller-coaster is an understatement.”
Ham said since the inception of the Peace Corps in 1961, more than 240 000 volunteers had served in 142 nations across the world, with just over 1 700 of those volunteers serving in South Africa since former president Nelson Mandela asked (then US) president Bill Clinton to bring Peace Corps back to South Africa in 1997.
He added that from January the Peace Corps had 950 volunteers back in 41 countries, and they were still aiming to return to their pre-evacuation levels in South Africa.
The Peace Corps stalwart said what made the Peace Corps special and different from any other agency was its founding mission of promoting world peace and friendship among countries, which he said remained as relevant as ever after 61 years and a global pandemic.
“Here in South Africa I have learnt about ‘Botho’ and the proverb ‘motho ke motho ka batho ba bang’; in other words, we are nothing with our interconnectedness, and the strength of humanity is built on individual relationships.
“The ideals of the Peace Corps are as timeless as the South African concept of Ubuntu. Because of these shared values, we know our communities have been eagerly awaiting the return of volunteers for the past two years,” he added.
Ham said the agency was still committed to assisting communities in South Africa and aiming to get back to having 140 volunteers in the country by the end of 2024.
Emilio Bloch, one of the volunteers sworn in at a ceremony held at the American Community Centre in Waterkloof, said his journey to joining the Peace Corps was started by his mother, who served in the agency in the 1980s in the then Republic of Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Growing up I always used to hear stories from my mother and father, who’s an anthropologist in Kenya, about their time abroad, especially throughout different parts of Africa. So hearing these stories made me want to travel and experience new things.”
Bloch said after graduating and doing a few jobs he decided to take the leap of faith and join the Peace Corps in 2020 as a maternal and child health educator volunteer in Rwanda.
“When I heard about coming to South Africa I said sure, finally, let’s go … And I’m loving it.”
Pretoria News