FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, December 18, 2003
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Peace Corps
Contact: Press Office
Phone: 202.692.2230
Fax: 202.692.2201
Email: pressoffice@peacecorps.gov |
First Peace Corps Volunteers in Azerbaijan Begin Work |
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WASHINGTON, D.C., December 18, 2003 – Recently, Azerbaijan gave an historic
welcome to its first group of Peace Corps volunteers during a swearing-in
ceremony in the coastal city of Sumgayit. On December 12, 2003, United States
Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish helped to officially inaugurate 26 new
volunteers into the Peace Corps.
U.S. Ambassador Reno Harnish administers the Peace Corps oath to the first
group of volunteers to Azerbaijan.
In addition to the ambassador, the swearing-in ceremony was attended by the
Peace Corps Azerbaijan Country Director Bill Levine, the Sumgayit Mayor Vagif
Aliyev, the Azerbaijan Deputy Minister of Education Elmir Qasimov, and
principals of the schools in which the new volunteers will be working. Also in
attendance were 14 returned Peace Corps volunteers from other nations who are
now working with development agencies in Azerbaijan, members of each family that
hosted a volunteer during their three month training period, and the Azerbaijani
Language and Culture Facilitators (LCF’s) who helped the volunteers adjust to
their new home in the country.
“These are really special people,” Country Director Bill Levine said of the
new volunteers. “They’re bright. They’re committed. They embody the pioneer
spirit that a first group needs to have. We’re all really proud of them and
confident that they will set a very high standard for subsequent groups of
volunteers.”
During the ceremony, three freshly minted volunteers spoke, as well as
volunteer Amy Peterson who astonished the crowd of 167 when she gave a speech in
Azerbaijani, a language that was completely foreign to her three short months
ago. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the volunteers joined voices with the
LCF’s to sing the American and Azerbaijani national anthems.
The Peace Corps’ Azerbaijani program aims to introduce new teaching
techniques and to improve the quality of spoken English so that Azerbaijan can
become an active member of the global economy. The volunteers will be focusing
their efforts on teaching English as a foreign language, and will work in rural
areas with students in secondary schools. Three of the volunteers will be
working in a university in a teacher training program. All of the volunteers
will be working with an Azerbaijani counterpart, most of who have never heard
English spoken by a native speaker before.
The Peace Corps has already established successful programs in many of
Azerbaijan’s neighboring countries in central Asia. The Azerbaijani government
has expressed a strong desire to host Peace Corps volunteers and is one of five
new countries that have begun a partnership this year as a part of the Peace
Corps’ ongoing effort to expand its number of volunteers. The other new programs
are in Fiji, Swaziland, Albania, and Chad.
Since 1961, more than 170,000 volunteers have served in the Peace Corps,
working in such diverse fields as education, health, HIV/AIDS education and
awareness, information technology, business development, the environment, and
agriculture. Peace Corps volunteers must be U.S. citizens and at least 18 years
of age. Peace Corps service is a two-year commitment.
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