Ghana and the United States have marked the 65th anniversary of Peace Corps Ghana, with a renewed commitment to strengthen the partnership built on volunteerism, community service and people-to-people relationships.
The anniversary event, held in Accra last Thursday, brought together government officials, diplomats, former and serving volunteers, Peace Corps staff, host families and community partners to celebrate the contributions of American volunteers to the country’s development.
Since the arrival of the first group of 52 Peace Corps volunteers in the country in August 1961, nearly 5,000 American volunteers have served in communities across the country, contributing to education, health, agriculture, food security, youth development and community-led initiatives.
Ghana became the first country to welcome Peace Corps volunteers after former US President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961.
Peace Corps
The Chief of Operations of Peace Corps Washington, Glenda Green, thanked the more than 800 communities across the country that have hosted volunteers since the programme began.
She said through collaborations between volunteers and Ghanaian communities, classrooms and latrines have been constructed, health initiatives launched, farm demonstration plots established and young people empowered.
“For 65 years, you have welcomed volunteers into your homes, taught them your languages, shared your traditions and allowed them to become part of your families and your lives,” she said.
She thanked the leadership of communities, successive governments and officials at the national and local levels, Peace Corps Ghana staff, past and present, for working together to identify and address local needs.
She said volunteers learned that service was reciprocal because while they came to Ghana to contribute, they also returned to the United States transformed by their experiences.
Education support
The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, commended the Peace Corps for their sacrifice and service to the country and said volunteers had supported STEM instruction, foundational literacy and inclusive learning in mainstream schools as well as in schools for the deaf.
He said one of the most admirable features of their contribution to education was its learner-centred approach and use of play-based pedagogy.
He praised them for encouraging the use of Ghanaian indigenous languages in teaching and learning, particularly at the kindergarten level, including the use of sign language in those languages.
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, thanked volunteers for their contributions towards the country’s campaign against Guinea worm disease, adding that the country recorded its last case of Guinea worm disease in 2010 and was certified free of the disease in 2015.
Sanitation, agriculture
The Chargé d’Affaires of the United States Embassy in Ghana, Rolf Olson, said that since 2022, Peace Corps volunteers had been involved in more than 100 water and sanitation projects and supported the construction and upgrading of more than 20 clinics, Community-based Health Planning and Services compounds, maternity wards and health laboratories.
In agriculture, he said volunteers had worked with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and local farmers to improve food production, introduce improved farming methods, promote crop diversification, optimise the use of resources and increase household incomes through training and hands-on field activities.
“In short, over six and a half decades of Peace Corps presence in Ghana, thousands of volunteers, including the 52 serving here currently, have positively impacted millions of human lives,” he said.
Human connections
The Country Director of Peace Corps Ghana, Tamu Daniel, said more than $50 million in human and fiscal resources had been invested in rural communities supporting education, health and agriculture, among others.
She indicated that the most important achievements of Peace Corps were difficult to quantify, stating instances in which Ghanaian host mothers stopped referring to volunteers simply as volunteers and instead called them their sons and daughters.
“A project can last for five years, a report can be filed, and we won’t even remember the folder we put it in.
A building someday may be replaced, but this human connection that we have within Peace Corps travels across generations,” she said.
