Famine Reports Spur Peace Corps’ Africa Recruiting
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WASHINGTON — The Ethiopian famine has turned out to be a potent recruiting device for the Peace Corps, although none of the more than 10,000 Americans who have responded to a recent appeal for agricultural specialists to work in Africa will go to Ethiopia or work directly on famine relief.
Since Peace Corps Director Loret Miller Ruppe issued a nationwide call Jan. 10 for volunteers to go to Africa, the corps has received more than the 10,000 responses it hoped for, spokesman Ron DeFore said.
He said that about 600 persons will be selected to work on African development projects this spring and summer. None will be sent to Ethiopia, which has not asked for Peace Corps volunteers, he noted.
The rest will be recruited for the corps’ new Africa Food Assistance Initiative, a long-term effort to reshape African agriculture to prevent future famines.
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