Peace Corps

Guyana is a tropical country on the northern shoulder of South America, 215,000 square kilometers in area, approximately the size of Great Britain or the combined size of the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. It is bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname, and the Atlantic Ocean. Guyana has a population of approximately 700,000 people, largely confined to a narrow coastal strip where sugar and rice cultivation are concentrated and where the nation's capital, Georgetown, clusters at the mouth of the Demerara River.

Guyana has great potential for human resource development through the use of its vast, untapped interior regions. Elsewhere, the only sizable center of population is the bauxite town of Linden, 60 miles up-river from Georgetown. Guyana has a rich diversity of racial and ethnic groups, with people of African descent constituting 35 percent of the population, people of East Indian descent 49 percent, and people of Portuguese, Chinese, Amerindian, and mixed descent making up the remainder. Three major river systems, the Demerara, the Berbice, and the Essequibo, together with innumerable smaller rivers and creeks, drain this “Land of Many Waters” and link its vast forested and savanna interior to the coast.

Volunteers provide community health education outreach in collaboration with relevant ministries and nongovernmental organizations. They assist with existing efforts to facilitate community involvement, train service providers, and introduce new training and teaching methodologies. Volunteers in the education/information technology project address a request from the Ministry of Education to enhance its computer-training and literacy education initiative for students and educators.