By Roy Denish.
Peace Corps Sri Lanka welcomes 34 new trainees for two years of service supporting English-language education in northern communities.
Thirty-four new U.S. Peace Corps trainees have arrived in Sri Lanka to begin a two-year mission focused on strengthening English-language education.
Welcomed in Colombo by U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Eric Meyer, the new cohort will spend their initial weeks undergoing intensive training in Sinhala or Tamil, Sri Lankan culture, and specialized teaching methodologies.
Following their official Peace Corps Pledge of Service in November, the volunteers will be deployed to schools across the Northern and North Central Provinces, where they will work directly with local educators and students.
True to the grassroots nature of the Peace Corps, the volunteers will live with Sri Lankan host families, immersing themselves in the daily life of their host communities.
A Six-Decade Partnership
This new cohort builds on a rich, six-decade history of cooperation between the Peace Corps and Sri Lanka.
Following an initial invitation from the Government of Sri Lanka in 1962, more than 500 American volunteers have served across various sectors, including education, health, agriculture, community development, and post-tsunami recovery.
After the program was formally reestablished in 2018 with a renewed emphasis on English-language instruction, it has continued to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries.
Ambassador Meyer emphasized the importance of these direct, people-to-people connections, noting that such initiatives help foster economic opportunities and bring the two democracies closer together across the Indo-Pacific region.
