AMMAN -- After an almost 10-year presence in the country promoting peace and understanding between Americans and Jordanians, the US Peace Corps will continue its volunteer work in rural Jordan and consider an expansion of their programmes if requested.
This, according to Ron Tschetter, the newly-appointed Peace Corps director who wraps up his five-day working tour of Jordan today.
"Our vision is peace and understanding in the world and our objective is to create that by working at the grassroots level, building relationships and delivering a skill set to the community," he said at a roundtable press discussion on Saturday.
Not only is it a goal of the Peace Corps to teach new skills, but Tschetter said they also want to bring a better understanding of Americans to the host country and take home to the United States a better understanding of the people they work with.
"The unique part of Peace Corps is that these goals have not changed in 45 years," he said, since the organisation was founded in 1961.
Peace Corps volunteers have been carrying out these objectives in Jordan by teaching English to students in rural elementary and secondary schools, fostering youth development programmes and providing special education to the disabled. Over 300 volunteers have served in Jordan since 1997 and today there are 53 working in the country.
Tschetter visited with some of those volunteers, met with government officials and talked about Peace Corps programmes with Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania.
"They were very enthused and appreciative to the United States government for the Peace Corps activities in the country of Jordan," Tschetter said.
"We come to the country with a skill that is needed, particularly at the grassroots level, working in the villages and towns where the activities are not as robust and readily available as they might be in a city like Amman," he said, though the exact locations of the volunteer bases cannot be disclosed due to security concerns.
"So if Their Majesties invite us to consider other skill programmes [for Jordan], we will definitely take that into consideration," Tschetter added.
Some of the work Peace Corps volunteers carry out in the Kingdom include serving as gender role models to children and promoting issues like empowerment and leadership. They also encourage youth development by focusing on community outreach, youth leadership, life skills and encouraging volunteerism in the community.
Most of the volunteers in the country are helping improve English education in rural areas, according to Darcy Neill, Peace Corps country director.
"Fluency in English is the key to higher education and jobs... and these volunteers teach in rural primary and secondary schools where native English speakers aren't available to them otherwise," she said.
Neill says they've spent much of the past nine-and-a-half years strengthening their core programmes to ensure they are delivering services to the people who need it the most.
"We try to do the things that people aren't doing already. We try to be responsive to the country's needs and offer our services at a grassroots level," she said.
"Volunteers live in the villages, they learn the language and get to know the people because that's where peace develops," she added.
By Grace Peacock
© Jordan Times 2006
