PEACE CORPS STAGING COMEBACK AFTER 7 YEARS

PEACE CORPS STAGING COMEBACK AFTER 7 YEARS
Kathmandu, 19 Dec.: The US Peace Corps, which had suspended operations in Nepal in September 2004, citing security and budgetary constraints during the Maoist insurgency, has decided to resume work in Nepal in five months, Anil Giri writes in The Kathmandu Post..
“Once we send our requirements to the Peace Corps headquarters, they will assess our demands, and accordingly send volunteers,” a senior official at the Ministry of Finance said. “Initially, we will send a request for 10-20 volunteers to be stationed in Nepal. These volunteers will be working on such areas as education, agriculture and community development.” To this effect, the Peace Corps headquarters has appointed its Tanzania-based official Aandra Wagner Diague as Nepal’s new country director. She, accompanied by US Ambassador to Nepal Scott H DeLisi, met government officials on Friday.
First established in Nepal in 1962 with a group of 100 volunteers in the agriculture and education sectors, Peace Corps volunteers contributed to a wide range of selected programmes in Nepal.
According to government data, over 4,000 volunteer served in Nepal, making strides in areas of health, education, agriculture, environment, micro business development, youth development and HIV/AIDS.
The Finance Ministry will conduct an inventory on the requirements for Nepal and decide on the nature and number of volunteers with help from line ministries. “We will then forward our demand to the Peace Corps headquarters seeking their approval,” said Lal Shanker Ghimire, chief of Foreign Aid Division at the Finance Ministry, confirming the news. “We expect the entire process to complete in at least five months.”
The resumption process started when Jhala Nath Khanal was prime minister early this year. Ghimire started corresponding with the Peace Corps headquarters, requesting the resumption of the operations.
The Peace Crops, ‘in principle,’ agreed to the request.
Asked on what led to the idea to resume the operations, officials said that as the peace process has started taking momentum, the overall security situation of the country has improved significantly and that the country needs such overseas assistance programmes to boost the economy and the social sector.
US Embassy spokesperson Heather Steil said, “No official announcement has been made yet. We hope to have more information in the coming weeks.”