US Embassy resumes Peace Corps programme in Namibia
The U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Jessica Long on Wednesday swore in the first of the returning Peace Corps Volunteers, who had departed due to COVID, thus marking the beginning of the process to build back the Peace Corps program in Namibia to the previous levels of volunteers.
Crissy Hendrickson is the first volunteer who will resume her work in Namibia. She began her service in 2018 as an education volunteer teaching math and science and was in her second year of service when she departed with the rest of the volunteers in 2020.
At the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, 127 Peace Corps Volunteers served throughout every region of the country. As the country went into lockdown, the volunteers returned to the United States. Today’s celebration marked the return of the first of the evacuated volunteers, and additional new volunteers will arrive in June and August.
Peace Corps Volunteers began serving in Namibia in 1990. Since then, more than 1,800 American volunteers have worked in various sectors, including education, health, and economic development. Volunteers serve two-year assignments, where they live and work in Namibian communities, learn local languages, and integrate into the culture as they work to advance the priority development aims of communities.
Crissy Hendrickson takes the Peace Corps pledge of service as read out by the U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires, Jessica Long. She is the first volunteer who will resume her work in Namibia since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. (@US Embassy Namibia)
