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| History of the Peace Corps | ||
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| Since 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries, more than 182,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 138 countries all over the globe.
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In August 1969, Mali made a formal request for the Peace Corps’ assistance. That same year, a Peace Corps representative arrived in Bamako, the capital of Mali, to assist the government in planning Volunteers’ activities, primarily in the area of agricultural development. The first Volunteers arrived in April 1971 to help allay the hardships caused by a severe drought. Twenty-five Volunteers developed projects in poultry raising, vegetable production, water resources managemen and agricultural extension.Since that time, some 2,000 Volunteers have served in Mali.
[edit] History and Future of Peace Corps Programming in Mali
Volunteers serve in six regions and in the district of Bamako. Peace Corps/Mali has Volunteers working in natural resource management, water resource management, agriculture or gardening, health education, education, and small business development projects. A health education project was added in 1992, while the education sector was eliminated in 1995. In the 1990s, Peace Corps programming incorporated efforts aimed at achieving the government of Mali’s priority goal of food self-sufficiency and responding to other development needs.
Currently, about 150 Volunteers are addressing the priority development needs of Mali as identified by Malians themselves: food production, water availability, environmental conservation, basic education, small income generation, and preventive healthcare.
All Volunteers in Mali, whether working in health or other projects, are also involved in HIV/AIDS education.
[edit] Assignment History
