In observance of this year’s International Volunteers Day, volunteers from two international organisations will collaborate on a clean-up exercise at the Married Women’s Quarters in Vigie, Castries.
The clean-up exercise is scheduled for Saturday, December 10, 2022, from 9:00 a.m., and will see the participation of volunteers from the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM), U.S. Peace Corps, and other interested organisations. Members of the public are welcomed to join in the activity.
International Volunteer Day, which will be observed globally on Monday, December 5, under the theme, “Solidarity through Volunteering”, seeks to highlight the power of our collective humanity to drive positive change through volunteerism.
This year, volunteers from the Taiwan Technical Mission and U.S. Peace Corps are returning to Saint Lucia to rebuild the vitality and work again with the Saint Lucian community and the Government of Saint Lucia for a prosperous development of the island. Those volunteers devoted a lot in Saint Lucia before 2019. However, this effort was forced to be suspended due to the pandemic.
The Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) is the technical cooperation arm for agriculture, youth and women empowerment, education, ICT, public health, environment, etc. for Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (TaiwanICDF), for mutual benefit and for the benefit of growth and development in partner countries. Currently, TTM has one volunteer attached to the Ministry of Commerce and is in charge of youth and women economic empowerment project. There are six assistant technicians and interns specialized in film-making, food processing, agro-economy, horticulture and marketing in TTM.
The U.S. Peace Corps Eastern Caribbean — serving Dominica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent & Grenadines, and Grenada — has had Volunteers assigned to Ministries and Community-based Organisations for 61 years. Volunteers serve with the Ministry of Education developing the literacy skills of primary school students alongside their counterpart teachers, work that Peace Corps, with USAID and OECS, committed to over six years ago. The Peace Corps is dedicated to the ideal that world peace and friendship is attainable through a personal commitment to serve our neighbours, to join forces to achieve mutual goals, and to share in a community of diverse visions and values.
The St. Lucia National Trust has been very instrumental in helping international volunteers select a venue for this clean-up activity and have been collaborating with the organisations throughout the planning process.