AUGUST: The Goals of the Peace Corps in Poland

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In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

• Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
• Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
• Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

In September 1989, the first post-Communist government contacted the Peace Corps regarding assistance to Poland.  Peace Corps programming teams then assessed the need and feasibility for Volunteers to serve in a variety of development sectors in Poland.  A post was formally opened upon the arrival of U.S. staff in Warsaw in March 1990, and the first group of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Volunteers arrived in Poland on June 18, 1990.

With the successful start of the TEFL program, a small business development program was established with the arrival of twenty-eight Volunteers in October 1990.  Later an environment program was added to promote environmental awareness in projects such as recycling, forest conservation and park management. 

When the Peace Corps graduated from Poland in 2001, a total of 963 Volunteers had served in locations all across the country.