STATEMENT BY THE RT HON. PRIME MINISTER
DR.B.S.S.DLAMINI
AT THE SWEARING-IN CEREMONY FOR PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEERS
AT ROYAL SWAZI SUN HOTEL, EZULWINI
THURSDAY 28 AUGUST 2014
Your Excellency Ambassador Makila James
Country Director of Peace Corps, Mr Steve Driehaus
Ladies and Gentlemen
When August comes round again these days I am sure my diary makes the entry automatically that I will be officiating at the Swearing-In ceremony of the year’s intake of Peace Corps volunteers.
And it is, indeed, a pleasure to do so. Because the nature of the work of the Peace Corps volunteer, the spirit that each brings to of the people of the communities in which they serve leaves one deeply impressed with, and grateful for, the Peace Corps programme.
The Kingdom of Swaziland has been a beneficiary of Peace Corps assistance since shortly after our Independence in 1968, and in the subsequent 28 years up until 1996 we received no fewer than 1,400 volunteers.
The primary focus in that period was on two areas: secondary education and agriculture. Then, owing to financial constraints “on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,” there was a break in the Swaziland Programme until it was revived in 2003 following a request by His Majesty King Mswati III.
The new Programme after that date was to focus on what had, in the meantime, emerged as the greatest challenge to our country’s economic and social development – the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Peace Corps concentrated its assistance on the key areas of risk reduction and impact mitigation in what became the CommunityHealth (HIV/AIDS) Education Project. In 2008, volunteers were posted to work with KaGogo clerks in our rural communities. I recall participating in the ratification of the revised Health Education Project Plan and the MOU signing ceremony in 2009. And Peace Corps certainly made its mark in that initiative, aligning itself with the new National HIV and AIDS Strategy and helping to develop the multi-sectoral approach to the National Response out in the communities.
Peace Corps has never been an organization to let grass grow under its feet, and in 2011 it introduced its Youth Development Programme in which volunteers are assigned to schools and orphanages, focusing on three key areas: literacy, healthy lifestyles and preparing youth for the world of work. Today’s volunteers are the fourth annual intake for that Programme.
Acknowledging that for any socio-economic development initiative to succeed it has to be driven up from grass roots level, in both of the ongoing Projects, Peace Corps volunteers work in under-served communities, and mainly with in-school and out-of-school youth as well as orphans and vulnerable children (OVC).
Living with families in the rural communities, learning our language and culture while working with individuals and community groups help to create the understanding and compassion in the volunteer that is needed to make the desired impact in the chosen areas.
The Peace Corps Programme is clearly one of great benefit to our people but, as in most initiatives of that nature, there is a mutual benefit to be seen. The volunteer, of his or her own free will, arrives strongly motivated to help those less materially well off than themselves and, in so doing, gains a deep satisfaction and sense of fulfillment that puts in place another important building block in their character. And in their training of trainers – that is, teachers, guidance counselors, peer counselors and community workers – the volunteers are enabling a passing-on of information to many more people than those with whom they come into direct contact.
All of the volunteers being sworn-in today have removed themselves from their respective comfort zones, and will be excited to be taking their place in an entirely new environment, invigorated and upbeat from the welcome they will have received. They are embarking on an adventure and a highly productive mission that they will remember for the rest of their lives.
And now, today, we are swearing-in the 12th annual intake of volunteers for the Peace Corps Programme bringing the total in the country to 80. The new volunteers have received nine weeks of intensive training and have been allocated to all four regions. I take this opportunity to thank the families in the communities of Sihhohhweni and Nkamanzi in the Manzini region who so graciously hosted the trainees during that period.
To those kind hosts I say syabonga kakhulu. And to the new volunteers I always say nemukelekile, aware that everyone of them will know exactly what that means (pause). For any non-volunteer I will explain that it is a word of very warm welcome. And I do add to that my very best wishes to all of the Peace Corps volunteers for a happy and fulfilling stay in their communities.
Syabonga
Thank you.