Tuesday, April 10, 2007

The Peace Corps


The website I talked about in my last entry is set up by the so-called Peace Corps. But who are they and why do they bother to discuss cultural issues on a whole website? Since it’s important to know who and why people publish information I wanted to find out more about that governmental agency called Peace Corps. Here are my results.

The history is short and easy. In 1960 Senator John F Kennedy encouraged students at the University of Michigan to live and work in developing countries. That started the ball rolling and an agency working for world peace was founded. The Peace Corps Volunteers try to help people in 139 countries with issues like AIDS education or environmental preservation for example.

The Peace Corps mission statement consists of three aims. Firstly, They want to help willing countries and their people. Secondly, they want the people in the counties they serve to get a better understanding of Americans. And lastly, they want Americans to get a better understanding of the countries they work for.

So what’s the website about culture matters for? The Peace Corps Culture website is meant as a workbook for students, to realize what culture means and to compare the own, American culture to foreign ones. It’s an interesting project and in my opinion a valuable website for anyone interested in culture.

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