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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1967)
PEACE CORPS IS GOING TO POLYNESIA Liberal Arts Graduates Will Be Nucleus of New Western Samoa Program The Pcucc Corps has been invited to send Volunteers to Polynesia's first inde pendent nation — Western Samoa. Having demonstrated in Micronesia in the space of only a few months what Vol unteer catalysts can do in a Pacific Island setting, the Peace Corps will place a new contingent in training for the Samoan assignment beginning this summer, with the likelihood that by that time Volun teers will also be requested for assignment in other new South Pacific island areas. Peace Corps planners believe it is pos sible that these projected programs, cou pled with the existing Micronesian efforts, could add as many as 1,000 new Volun teers in the Pacific. For Western Samoa, and other pro jected South Seas assignments, the Peace Corps is seeking mainly liberal arts grad uates for tasks in teaching, public health, agriculture and community development. ♦ • * THE GOAL is to raise thousands of islanders from a life of ill health, poor diet and lack of education in an area of the world that historically has received more romantic than realistic attention. Volunteers in Western Samoa — a nine island complex supporting a rapidly-grow ing population of 134,000 — will form a striking force against an array of health problems and obstacles to educational and economic development in a country where: • almost all Samoans suffer from in testinal parasites and many others are afflicted with tuberculosis, yaws, leprosy and other infectious diseases. • adequate, safe village water supplies are a luxury. • infant mortality is still more common than not and population growth is out stripping what few advances have been made in improving island life. Against this dismal background are fur ther hindrances to development: lack of educational facilities and a meager agri cultural output. * * * THE FIRST VOLUNTEERS to reach Western Samoa this fall will set in motion a WASH DAY IN SAMOA near a seaside ‘villa’ on Upolu’n north shore brings out most ot the neighborhood. Thatched root house lacks walls so occupants work and sleep In lull view. Palm frond blinds are dropped only during foul weather. -NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PHOTO (C) government health program designed to sur vey the islands’ health needs and the preva lence of diseases. Later, the Volunteers — mostly liberal .arts graduates who will be supported by a team of Volunteer doc tors, nurses, lab technicians, civil engi neers and architects—will shift into disease control, environmental health and sanita tion, maternal and child care projects and the building of village water supply sys tems. Meanwhile, about 20 agricultural ex tension workers, including five Volunteers with business administration backgrounds to work with cooperatives, will aid farmers growing the major island crops of ba Continued on page 2 Applications Are Due Now For Summer, Fall Training Programs Despite the lure of top-paying jobs with private industry, the Peace Corps con tinues to be the country’s number one employer of newly-minted college gradu ates. — - - As the Peace Corps loses its amateur standing and joins the big leagues in over seas development, the vast academic melt ing pot will again provide the bulk of the estimated 8,000 Volunteers required to fill the critical skill reservoirs in at least 56 countries this year. * £ $ ALREADY rapidly-approaching sum mer training programs are being developed for the new Peace Corps countries of Lesotho, The Gambia and Upper Volta in Africa (see page 4) and Western Samoa in the Pacific. After a 2 Vi-year absence, the Peace Corps is returning to Ceylon to assist in an over-all national effort to make the tear drop-sized nation self-sufficient in food production. In the Trust Territory of the Pacific (Micronesia) and South Korea in East Asia and the Pacific: Chad, Libya, Bots wana and Mauritania in Africa, and Para guay and Guyana in Latin America—all countries which received their first Volun teers only last year — additional programs are also being mounted for summer train ing sessions. Graduating seniors are being urged to apply now, as summer and fall training program quotas are rapidlv beginning to fill. ENTERING A NEW ERA of consoli dated growth. Director Jack Vaughn, an ex-boxer. Marine combat officer and diplo mat, has brought the agency through a vital stage of development in which the Peace Corps is being asked to measure its impact overseas and not simply rely on what one official calls “youthful goodwill ambassadoring.” Although there is little quarrel with basic goals — fostering ideas and tech niques of self-help, cooperative work and community organization — new trends in training are beginning to take shape. They include lengthier preparation for most programs, more in-country as op posed to stateside training, and greater emphasis on technical and language skills.
