Peace Corps Highlighted in Trujillo Newspaper

The following is an article featured in the main Trujillo newspaper, La Industria.  It highlights the work of Peace Corps in the region, focusing on our recent youth camps. I translated most of the article below.

Hundreds of Youth Share a Unique Experience

Peace Corps: More than a Vocation

Organization Founded by John F Kennedy Works in 8 Provinces of La Libertad

“Don’t wait for change, be the change.” Peace Corps promotes this motto to hundreds of youth in 13 regions of Peru, one of which is La Libertad, where 25 volunteers can be found working in 8 provinces: Otuzco, Sanchez Carrion, Santiago de Chuco, VIru, Gran Chimu, Ascope, Pacasmayo, and our own city.

The story began to write itself 51 years ago when the president John F Kennedy founded Peace Corps, a development agency supported by the United States, which provides American professionals who work on social development projects in communities who solicit their support.  The members of this organization are currently working in 79 different countries.

Within Peru there is an initiative with Peace Corps volunteers working in environmental management, water and sanitation, youth development, small business development, and community health.

The regional coordinator of Peace Corps, Sandra Rivasplata, explained that there have been many years of intense work in the design and implementation of projects based on the reality of each community with a strong emphasis on community inclusion.  “Our first efforts were focused on combating chronic child malnutrition, which led us to become authorities on the theme and allowed us to expand our lines of action.”

Peace Corps works prioritizing interventions benefitting children, women and small businesses, focusing on workshops and educational sessions.  Annually, the volunteers facilitate two camps with student leaders from the region, one named ALMA (Leadership Activities for Young Women) and VALOR (Leadership Activities for Young Men).

In these camps the youth spend four days learning about diverse topics including; leadership, self esteem, youth entrepreneurship, goal setting and life planning, vocational orientation, and health (sexual/reproductive health, teen pregnancy prevention, etc.) sharing experiences with other youth from the coast and mountains from the region, converting the camps into a great space of sharing and learning amongst the youth.

This year the first camp was held with young women with the principal focus of vocational orientation, including a vocational tour where youth visited four different institutes and universities and listened to presentations about scholarship opportunities, motivating them to continue their studies for a better future for themselves and their families.

The Facts-

There are 8655 Peace Corps volunteers in the world

240 Peace Corps volunteers serve in Peru

33 Volunteers are in the La Libertad Region