Looking into my future....

This week, I have been involved in early planning meetings of a Health Extension Worker (HEW) pilot program for the Ministry of Health. The district of Opuwo was selected to be piloting the program in hopes that it is successful and will roll out to the rest of the regions in the country in the near future. In Namibia and also in many other low-income countries, it is difficult for many people to get to a clinic and get the necessary health services due to the terrain and distance to the clinic from their village. It is the hope of the HEW to provide prevention education as well as basic health services to people in hard to reach areas.

So this week, some development partners, representatives from the Ministry of Health and traditional leaders sat down to discuss how we could roll out this pilot program in Opuwo district. While in our meetings, I also found out that almost all of the international development partners were 1) Americans and 2) returned Peace Corps volunteers! So cool! One woman was a returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) in Guatemala and now works for C Change in Namibia. C Change is a USAID-funded project to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) as an integral part of development efforts. Another woman was an RPCV in Zambia and now works for US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Namibia. And a third was an RPCV in Namibia and now works in Namibia for Project Hope, a program that helps to strengthen health care services and provide health education.

To hear that there were returned Peace Corps volunteers now working in the international development field came as no surprise to me. It’s like saying someone who loved history and playing in the sand as a child is now an archaeologist. But to actually hear from returned Peace Corps volunteers who are working in international development was wonderful! It definitely gave me an insight into the life of an international development worker but also some insight as a RPCV…..two things I would love to be!