Peace Corps Deepens Saint Lucia Partnership With New Cohort

As the Peace Corps prepares to mark 65 years of service in Saint Lucia, 25 new volunteers are beginning two-year assignments that will take them into schools and communities across the island.

The volunteers took their oath on Friday, August 7, after completing nine weeks of intensive training, which included living with Saint Lucian host families and working alongside local teachers and resource personnel while becoming immersed in the island’s culture and language.

Their arrival continues a partnership dating back to October 15, 1961, when Saint Lucia became one of the first three countries in the world to receive Peace Corps Volunteers. More than 800 volunteers have since served on the island, with education, literacy and community engagement now central to their work.

U.S. Chargé d’Affaires for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Karin B. Sullivan said the newest volunteers will use “community-based participatory approaches” to learn about the communities in which they will live and work, partnering with local stakeholders to develop activities around identified needs.

Through its partnership with the Ministry of Education, Sullivan said Peace Corps Volunteers bring “a human touch to the education system,” working at the grassroots level to advance primary education literacy and special education.

In 2025, 54 volunteers supported more than 40 schools and over 10 partner organisations across Saint Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. Among students who worked with volunteers, 53 percent demonstrated improved literacy skills on a standardised assessment tool, while 954 participated in recreational activities aimed at strengthening literacy.

For Micoud Primary School Principal and Peace Corps Project Advisory Committee member Fern Dornelly, however, the impact goes beyond the numbers. She described the oath as “a commitment to service, partnership and hope,” reminding volunteers that students “may not remember every lesson you teach, but they will remember how you made them feel.”

Dornelly said the programme’s legacy has been built not through “grand gestures,” but through relationships developed “one child, one classroom and one community at a time.” She encouraged the new volunteers to enter their assignments with “open minds, humble hearts and a willingness to learn as much as you teach,” stressing that their impact will also be reflected in “the confidence you inspire and the connections you build.”

Since the first volunteers arrived in 1961 to work in education, agriculture, health, youth and community development, approximately 4,440 Peace Corps Volunteers have served across the Eastern Caribbean.

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