3 goals of peace corps

2011 Peace Corps celebrates its 50th Anniversary. As I am working on translating my Community Diagnostic Survey and planning a birthday celebration in my town, I thought I’d post some information about the three goals of Peace Corps.

The first goal is to help the people of interested counties in meeting their need for trained men and women. This encompasses my work at the Health Center and intra sector projects in the community. As there are already skilled hospital staff and health workers in my town, I am not sure how great the need is here for “trained men and women”, but many of the main causes for illness could be prevented through various types of communication of health messages, I hope to spend most of my time coordinating communication campaigns and teaching health to students at schools, English Clubs, summer camps, and Scout meetings.

The second goal is to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of peoples served. I am not sure if having my neighbors over for Mac n’ Cheese or going Christmas Caroling quite fits the second goal objectives, these are two activities I’ve shared with neighbors and friends here in Madagascar. There are certain times such as holidays where I go out of my way to share American culture such as Halloween and Thanksgiving, but really I think this goal is about my every day interactions and conversations with people. Whether talking about American music that the neighbor’s teenage sons listen to or telling Malagasy that I don’t eat rice three times a day in the United States; I am constantly helping Malagasy to have a better understanding of Americans.

The Third goal is to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. This is happening now as I post on this blog, when I send letters, or share photos of my life in Madagascar. I am also currently enrolled in the World Wide Schools Program which is a program that allows me to correspond with a classroom back in the United States. A special hello to all the students in Mr. S’s class at Lowell Elementary in Seattle. My hope is that in the two years that I am here you will be able to think of more than just the movie with singing and dancing lemurs when someone mentions the country of Madagascar.