1962.03.01: March 1, 1962: Headlines: COS - Saint Lucia: 1960s: The Volunteer: Roberta Napier writes: The Peace Corps begins in Saint Lucia - From The Volunteer Newsletter March 1962
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1962.03.01: March 1, 1962: Headlines: COS - Saint Lucia: 1960s: The Volunteer: Roberta Napier writes: The Peace Corps begins in Saint Lucia - From The Volunteer Newsletter March 1962
Roberta Napier writes: The Peace Corps begins in Saint Lucia - From The Volunteer Newsletter March 1962
Our long range goal is to institute some uniformity in the clinic service in the south of the island. I am now working on the health promotion program, and typhoid prevention, as well as teaching the Red Cross first aid course. We have had four showings of Walt Disney health films to audiences of 300 to 500 people. These have been in the country-one showing in an open field, one by a rum shop, another near a church and still another at the health center. The medical department seems to feel that results have been good. We are also working with three experimental Rural Clinics at which we have distributed vermifuge medicine to 320 children. The clinics have been held in the open using two folding tables and tacking posters on nearby trees. Mothers bring the children, some walking several miles.
Roberta Napier writes: The Peace Corps begins in Saint Lucia - From The Volunteer Newsletter March 1962
ST. LUCIA
by Roberta Napier
Early last summer the Peace Corps and Heifer Project, Inc., inaugurated a program at Iowa State University to prepare 15 volunteers for work on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia.
After two months training at Iowa State we departed for St. Augustine, Trinidad, where we continued training at the University College of the West Indies. Here, working with students from Jamaica, Fiji Islands, British Guiana and many of the Windward Islands as well as Trinidadians, we became more familiar with the people with whom we would live and work during the coining months.
On October 15, fifteen voulnteers were greeted at Vigie Airport by St. Lucian government officials, the police band and the men and women who were to become our co-workers, all flanked by many interested citizens of the island. We realized that here at last was St. Lucia-the island we had studied from so great a distance with such intensity. We would no longer be able to look at this place objectively; we were now a part of it.
On the job now, we live and breathe our work. We arc working in most instances on established projects- in extension work, adult education, teacher training, youth programs, home economics, forestry and health education. The extension workers are helping local farmers raise livestock provided by Heifer Project, Inc.
Our interest in St. Lucia, its people and our work is always increasing and we look forward eagerly to the remaining year and a half of our Peace Corps assignments.
Carlos Naranjo, working in Castries, the island's capital, has this to say about his work which is similar to that of five other teachers on St. Lucia:
My job assignment is that of teacher-training. We are concerned with the in-service training of the island's teachers. This includes Friday night and Saturday morning classes, vacation classes and bi-weekly assignments. There are 52 elementary schools and approximately 500 school teachers. Of these, about 150 are beginning school teachers or have taught one year. Most teachers are recruited from elementary school where they have completed their primary education. They range from 14 to 16 years old. I am also engaged in adult education, teaching a beginning reading and writing class two nights a week.
Malinda DuBose, one of the two volunteers working on health problems, reports:
Our long range goal is to institute some uniformity in the clinic service in the south of the island. I am now working on the health promotion program, and typhoid prevention, as well as teaching the Red Cross first aid course. We have had four showings of Walt Disney health films to audiences of 300 to 500 people. These have been in the country-one showing in an open field, one by a rum shop, another near a church and still another at the health center. The medical department seems to feel that results have been good. We are also working with three experimental Rural Clinics at which we have distributed vermifuge medicine to 320 children. The clinics have been held in the open using two folding tables and tacking posters on nearby trees. Mothers bring the children, some walking several miles.
The other Volunteers ate working in agr/cul/uie. Here, Bill Hundley describes his activities:
Soil conservation is the main area of work. With 160 inches of rain per year and most of the peasant holdings on steep hill sides, a considerable part of our program consists of supervising the construction of contour drainage ditches. Also, we provide instruction on banana cultivation, the main crop of St. Lucia. Our work includes instruction to farmers on cocoa trimming, vegetable gardening, establishing citrus trees, grafting of mangoes, etc. Later a considerable part of our time will be devoted to instruction on care of poultry and swine.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Peace Corps Annual Report: 1962; Peace Corps Saint Lucia; Directory of Saint Lucia RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Saint Lucia RPCVs; The 1960's
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Story Source: The Volunteer
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