34 Peace Corps volunteers take the oath

As many as 34 US Peace Corps volunteers attended the ceremony of taking the oath and of marking 15 years of work of the Corps in Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. The manager of the Peace Corps in Moldova, Jeff Kelley-Clarke, said Wednesday this was the 23th team of volunteers arriving in Moldova. 15 volunteers will teach health education and 19 will teach English in Moldovan schools during two years. They will live in Moldovan families. Some 120 American volunteers are working in Moldova now. The ones taking the oath will follow those 800 Americans having worked in Moldova to exchange knowledge between Moldova and the US, trying to create waves of hope to produce changes needed for peace, said Kelly Keiderling, a charge d'affaires of the US Embassy. According to her, for 15 years, every volunteer has found different ways to work with the youth, opening for them a wider world. The USA wants Moldova to prosper, but also to contribute to solve the problems having emerged after the fall of the USSR and the economic crisis of the 90s, she said. Before being sworn as volunteers, they studied Romanian or Russian, getting familiar with Moldova's culture. Apart from their basic jobs, the volunteers will participate in various projects promoting a healthy life style, will organize sports teams, summer camps and will open info resources in English. The Peace Corps started to work in Moldova in 1993. Its first mission helped Moldovan teachers of English to improve their skills. Later the Peace Corps involved in projects dealing with community development, agriculture, agri-business and health education.