Keeping the Peace.

The Peace Corps is starting to increase the numbers of volunteers who are over the age of 50. They say that older volunteers bring a more professional type of service from life experiences then the younger volunteers straight from college. The Peace Corps continues however to receive an overwhelming percentage of inexperience college graduates, who don’t know how to handle working with citizens of third world countries. Critics say however that the Peace Corps should recruit only the best qualified graduates and only the older volunteers who have skills and personal characteristics that are a solid fit for the host country. However the Peace Corps has resisted doing this because they fear it would significantly lower to number of volunteers. Another critic of the Peace Crop is that although the will of the volunteers of the Peace Corps were initially good, they do little to nothing to actually aid development in poor countries. For example In Cameroon, a Country in Africa, the Peace Corps continues supplying English teachers to that country after it was revealed that there are already many well educated people in the country capable of speaking very good English. The country even ranked English teachers as their lowest priority, but thy are continuing receiving them. This is a clear indication of how the Peace Corps neglects its consumers, yet prioritize the fact the volunteer are enjoying themselves, regarding the fact if they are improving the quality of life in the host country.

Despite the many problems and criticism Peace Corps now receives, the early years of the Peace Corp proved to be effective and beneficial. The Peace Corp was created to have the people of America meet challenges of the world with “innovation, creativity, determination, and compassion.” The Peace Corps was created on March 1,1961. President John F. Kennedy issued and Executive order establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency with in the Department of States. He also asked congress for a permanent funding for this agency to train and send Americans to foreign countries. After its creation thousand of letters poured into Washington from young American hoping to volunteer. After March 1, thousands of young American volunteered for the Peace Corps. Headed by Kennedy’s brother in law, R Sergeant Shriver, 750 were chosen to serve in 13 nation in 1961. That August Kennedy hosted a White House ceremony to honor the first Peace Corp volunteer. On September 22, 1963 Kennedy sighed a legislation which created a permanent Peace Corps that would “ promote world peace and friendship” with three goals: To help the people of interested countries to meet their needs from trained men and women, to help promote a better understanding of Americans , and to help promote a better understanding of others people on the part of Americans. Although budget cuts has lowed the number of Peace Corp volunteers, today more then 7,00o Peace Corps Volunteer serve in over 720 countries.