77 new Peace Corps volunteers

On May 27 the oath-taking ceremony for a group of US Peace Corps volunteers in Ukraine took place in Kyiv. Seventy-seven Americans after finishing their three-month adaptation period in our country, solemnly swore at the Kyiv Teacher’s House to be loyal to the Corps’s ideas during their two-year term in Ukraine.

The US Peace Corps is a governmental agency. For four decades it has rendered technical assistance to 120 countries, paid for by US taxpayers. The Peace Corps started its close cooperation with the Ukrainian government and public organizations in May 1992 when President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and US President George Bush the Elder signed a bilateral agreement On Launching Peace Corps Programs in Ukraine. Since then Peace Corps volunteers have helped directly over a million Ukrainian citizens. There are three basic programs: teaching English as foreign language, promoting business, and environmental protection. There are also some additional programs: organizing youth summer camps, adult educational courses, teacher retraining, aiding orphans and the handicapped, founding libraries, along with psychological assistance in developing leadership and civic qualities. Volunteers are given permanent work in Ukraine where they are received as full team members. Ukrainian educational institutions and organizations send work proposals to the Peace Corps and then discuss the most relevant forms of cooperation. The volunteers do not get paid by their employers: the Corps covers their basic expenses in Ukraine, while their apartment rental is the partnership contribution of the Ukrainian organization.

Why would American volunteers come to Ukraine form the prosperous United States? Diana Schmidt (58), Deputy Director of the Peace Corps in Ukraine, told The Day that her grandmother was born in Ukraine and she had always been attracted by an idea to come here. In 2000-2001 she worked in Ukraine as volunteer and, obtaining a chance to come here as a Corps staff worker, she was thrilled to have an opportunity to communicate with Ukrainians as long as possible. Chris Cabaha (43) always dreamed of visiting Eastern Europe. She sees her stay in Ukraine as a good chance to familiarize herself with this country’s culture and share her experience. She will work in Lviv, helping Ukrainian women to start their own business. Kevin McMaen (24) was brought to Ukraine by his desire to travel and to learn Ukrainian. He believes that thanks to his work in our country will make his life something bigger than it would have been if he had remained in the US. Kevin will teach ecology and language to Kaniv schoolchildren. In general, the main goals of all volunteers, according to the organization’s statement, are giving assistance to the Ukrainian people in connection with its striving for European integration and furthering mutual understanding between the Ukrainian and American peoples.