US Peace Corps welcomes 9 new volunteer teachers [1]
Thursday, September 7, 2023 - 22:32. Updated on Thursday, September 7, 2023 - 22:33.
US Peace Corps in Tonga welcomed nine new volunteer teachers today, 7 September, at the start of a redeployment of volunteers in Tonga.
Peace Corps Group 85 made their pledge of service before the US Ambassador Marie Damour, at a swearing in ceremony held at the Kupesi Hotel, Fua’amotu.
Ms Damour also recognised two other US Peace Corps volunteers present, who had departed Tonga during the pandemic and waited three years to return to complete their service.
She said that there had been a long collaborative service journey between the Peace Corps and Tonga that went back to 1967. The work had now transitioned to an approved English Language development project. They were also about to launch a new environmental programme as a response to the existential threat of climate change.
She said that the volunteering was not just about what the Peace Corps brings to Tonga.
“It is also about what the Peace Corps volunteers bring back to the USA. You are going to be the face of the US. Those of you who go back will be ambassadors for Tonga. When you go back to your communities you will be able to explain why Tonga is important,” she said.
English language development
Tonga’s CEO for Education, ‘Isikeli Oko, said the Tonga Government welcomed the volunteers who had completed 11 weeks in-country training. Since 1967 over 1700 volunteers had served in Tonga.
In April this year the Peace Corps signed a new MOU with Tonga for a new English Language Development Programme, to be extended for seven years to 2030.
“Volunteers will move to sites all over Tonga in the next two years, to Ha’apai and Vava’u and hopefully the Niuas too,” he said.
The Peace Corps is also strengthening its partnership with non-government organisations and a new climate sector project would be introduced in close cooperation with civil society in Tonga.
The Peace Corps is welcoming back two-year volunteers and in future there will also be short term volunteers on special assignments, he said.
Group 85 Peace Corps volunteers sworn in today were: CJ Adams, Kyle Aloof, Colt Duncan, Katarina Eads, Diana Lee, Samuel Livesay, Deborah Oh, Andrew Pavey, and Scarlett Vogle.