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.