Michael Raynor, Ambassador of the United States in Ethiopia on Wednesday administered the oath of 46 new Peace Corps Volunteers at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa.
The volunteers will be working on community-based engagement in the areas of health, agriculture and education in the Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, and Southern regions, according to the press statement from the United States Embassy in Addis Ababa.
Ambassador Raynor said “Peace Corps teaches us that by approaching others with open minds and open hearts, and by coming together and working together, there are no limits to what we can achieve. That is a relevant lesson for all of us, and no less so for Ethiopia as it makes its transition to a more democratic inclusive and economically prosperous future.”
He also thanked Ethiopian host families and the communities, saying “Your support is essential to facilitating the volunteers’ work, of course, but even more important, it forms a foundation for the friendships that have built unbreakable ties between volunteers and Ethiopia for more than five decades.”
Peace Corps Volunteers live and work within small communities around Ethiopia. They often become members of those communities and collaborate closely with health workers to implement the Improving Community Health in Ethiopia (ICHE) program that focusing on mothers and caregivers of children to improve household access to water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition. Others will focus on the Nutrition Sensitive Agriculture (NuSA) project, working with farmers to increase food production and promoting increased nutrition to improve families’ food security.
All 46 of these new Volunteers are heading to their communities having completed 3 months of training before taking the oath of service today. This inauguration brings the total number of Peace Corps Volunteers who have worked in Ethiopia to over 3,700 since its inception
As the preeminent international service organization of the United States, the Peace Corps sends Americans abroad to contribute towards solutions for the most pressing needs of people around the world.
Peace Corps Volunteers work at the grassroots level with local governments, schools, communities, small businesses and entrepreneurs to develop sustainable solutions that address challenges in education, health, economic development, agriculture, environment and youth development.