United States of America (USA) Ambassador Virginia Palmer yesterday swore in 15 Peace Corp Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) volunteers.
The ceremony, which took place at Palmer’s residence in Lilongwe, marked the start of the volunteers year of service in the country.
In her remarks, Palmer said the new Peace Corps were the fourth cohort of GHSP volunteers to serve in Malawi since the GHSP began in 2013, bringing the total number to 44.
She said over the three years, volunteers had worked alongside and taught 2 818 nursing students, 960 medical students and 267 faculty and hospital staff locally.
Said Palmer: “This group of volunteers represents some of the best that America has to offer. They specialise in a number of important fields, including internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, public health, adult medicine/surgery and paediatrics.”
The volunteers will be deployed to various training institutions such as the College of Medicine, St. John of God College of Health Sciences, Dae Yang Luke College of Nursing, Kamuzu College of Nursing and Mzuzu University.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health MacPhail Magwira said the health sector faces a number of challenges, including capacity building.
He said, as a ministry, they were happy that the American Government had sent the volunteers who would be involved in training training Malawi students locally.
The GHSP builds on over a half century of US Peace Corps support to Malawi. Since 1963, over 2 900 American Peace Corps volunteers have partnered Malawi to build capacity in areas of health, environment and education.
