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Peace Corps Assessment Team to arrive at Uzbekistan
Reports from Tashkent in Uzbekistan are that the Peace Corps office is open and that employees who stayed in country after the evacuation of volunteers last October have been notified that an Assessment Team from Peace Corps Washington is arriving next week to determine the feasibility and schedule for bringing volunteers back to Uzbekistan.
The Peace Corps suspended its programs in the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan last October due to concerns about their safety in the wake of the military buildup in the region in the aftermath of September 11. There were 149 Volunteers and American staff from Uzbekistan who were returned to Washington, D.C. The Country Director and Administrative Officer stayed behind after the evacuation and they, along with local staff kept the Peace Corps Office open in Tashkent.
Peace Corps Washington is in the process of calling members of Uzbekistan 11 to see if they want to come back. Members of Uzbekistan 11 have been urged to call Craig Lamberton, the Uzbekistan country desk assistant at PC Washington, and inform him if they are interested in returning. According to the US Peace Corps, members of Uzbekistan 10 are not being contacted.
The Uzbekistan program will reopen with 45 trainees in August - the regularly scheduled pre-service training (PST) date-assuming there is a positive reassessment report. The new volunteers will work in TEFL (primary, secondary and university). Assuming a positive assessment report from the team, the program would reopen before that with a small number of the Uzbekistan 11s.
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; US Peace Corps - Overseas Programs; COS Uzbekistan