The Peace Corps celebrates five decades | The Journal Watchdog by Community Journals, a media company based in Greenville, S.C

The Peace Corps celebrates five decades | The Journal Watchdog by Community Journals, a media company based in Greenville, S.C: "The inspiration for the Peace Corps came on Oct. 14, 1960, when Kennedy, in an impromptu campaign speech, asked University of Michigan students to give two years to help people in countries of the developing world.

It was a theme he followed with his inaugural urging: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

Within three months of Kennedy taking the oath of office Jan. 20, 1961, the Peace Corps was up and running under R. Sargent Shriver, who was director for five years.

The first group of 51 Peace Corps volunteers arrived in Ghana the next August. Today, 8,655 volunteers and trainees are working in 76 countries.

Volunteers typically spend 10 weeks of in-country training and 24 months of service in the field. Today, 37 percent of the volunteers are in Africa, 24 percent in Latin America, 21 percent in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, seven percent in Asia, 5 percent in the Caribbean, 4 percent in North Africa or the Middle East and 2 percent in the Pacific Islands."
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