209th group of Peace Corps volunteers sworn-in in Nepal

KATHMANDU: Today, twenty-two Peace Corps Volunteers were sworn in by Ambassador Dean R. Thompson and the Peace Corps/Nepal Country Director Troy Kofroth to begin their two-year service in Nepal.

The new Volunteers join the nearly 4,000 Peace Corps Volunteers who have served in Nepal and are the 209th group of American Volunteers to come to Nepal since 1962 when the governments of Nepal and the United States of America signed an agreement to establish the Peace Corps program here in Nepal.

“President Kennedy said at the program’s founding in 1961 that ‘Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed–doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language,” Ambassador Thompson recalled, adding, “It was true then and remains the same now – Peace Corps Volunteers live with Nepali host families, eating alongside them and other fellow community members, learn and use the Nepali language, and work for a small stipend rather than a salary.”

The twenty-two Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in January 2024 and underwent 11 weeks of intensive language, cross-cultural, and technical training in the Kavre District in preparation for their service.

The Volunteers have been assigned to five districts in Gandaki and Bagmati provinces to teach English in government schools and to work on food security and health projects in coordination with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Health and Population, and Agriculture and Livestock Development. With this new group, there are forty Peace Corps Volunteers serving in seven districts of Nepal.