Gregory Thome, Deputy Chief of Mission, United States Embassy, Yaounde, Cameroon speaks of 50 years of the Corps'uninterrupted presence in the country.

Today the American Peace Corps is celebrating 50 years of its presence in Cameroon. What importance does the US government attach to this event?

We are celebrating Peace Corps’ 50 years uninterrupted presence in Cameroon. There is no way to underestimate how important this is for our government, for our embassy and for the American people. The Peace Corps presence in Cameroon is a signal of the commitment that the United States has to being a partner and about the working environment that the Cameroonian government and people have offered Peace Corps volunteers.

How do you ensure that these volunteers arriving Cameroon have the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to effectively serve Cameroon?

Cameroon has been one of the examples in the world of the effectiveness of the Peace Corps training programme. Peace Corps has used 51 years to develop what I will call one of the top-notch training programmes in the world. It focuses on language, cultural understanding and technical skills. Our volunteers work in a variety of areas at the grassroots level such as health, environment, small business development and we ensure through the training programme and through their background that they come to Peace Corps with many talents.

The National Civic Service for Youth Participation in Development is a novelty for Cameroonians. Considering the US experience, do you envisage any degree of cooperation between the American Peace Corps and the Civic Service Programme?

First of all, my government and this embassy absolutely congratulate the government of Cameroon for taking the initiative to form a civic service organisation to especially engage young people in the development of their own country. This is exactly what the idea behind the Peace Corps was. It was to encourage, as John F. Kennedy did 52 years ago, young people to participate and to take ownership of development. We are pleased to see that the Cameroonian government has taken this road.

These things of course take time and, as you rightly said, the Cameroonian people aren’t yet very familiar with this. That shouldn’t slow down the government in its efforts to make this a programme that young people could become enthusiastic about and want to participate in. We have not yet engaged in formal discussions with the government of Cameroon about Peace Corps partnering with this organisation. But I can tell you that Peace Corps is always open to new partners, always open to finding active organisations and people who are looking for development opportunities. We are absolutely prepared to speak with the Cameroonian government and talk about what kind of partnerships could be formed.