Peace Corps World Wise Schools

Peace Corps Coverdell World Wise Window, Peace Corps Volunteer with students washing hands in Panama.

As the winter months approach, we focus extra attention on staying healthy. Whether it’s getting a flu shot, encouraging students to cover their sneezes and coughs, or washing our hands more often—this is the time of year we often take special care to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Like many of us, many Peace Corps Volunteers across the globe are working to combat preventable diseases. In this edition of World Wise Window, we celebrate the stories of Volunteers who are striving to improve health in communities around the world.

Peace Corps Volunteers are working to ensure that communities have access to health information about how diseases are spread, the importance of clean water, resources for staying healthy, and quality health services with trained caregivers. By addressing issues like public health, hygiene, and sanitation, Peace Corps Volunteers support communities in improving health knowledge and practices.

This month, take a look at World Wise Schools’ resources related to disease prevention and health promotion. Learn about the life cycle of malaria and how mosquito nets are helping prevent the spread of the disease. Explore the ways that clean water and proper sanitation contribute to a community’s wellbeing. Think about what you can do to support health initiatives both locally and globally. And as they say in Nepal, Raamro saanga baasnus, or live well!

Q: What types of preventable disease do you see impacting your community, and how are you working with the local population to address these problems?

A: I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in the mountainous region of Jinotega, Nicaragua. Although I have only been on site for a little over 7 months, there are a few severe diseases impacting our area that I work with constantly. Currently, Leptospirosis is one of those diseases tearing through the community and causing huge problems throughout Nicaragua. I work in the local high schools and with youth groups educating the students on ... more

Do you know about World Toilet Day? Learn how to champion the right of people everywhere to adequate sanitation access. Source: Water Aid

Nets distributed to prevent mosquito bites.

Fighting Malaria
One Net at a Time

Investigate the geography and global prevalence of malaria, the role of mosquitoes in malaria transmission, and the social and economic impacts of the disease through the Malaria Challenge WebQuest. Then join Peace Corps Volunteers in Senegal by viewing a video describing their mosquito net distribution campaign.

Happy Hearts in Manabí

Read about a Volunteer's work promoting heart health in Ecuador.

Consider how educating others can be a form of service by prioritizing health education issues in your own communities, and creating educational materials for your local audience from this lesson, Taking Action!

Game: Sanitation and Disease Challenge

Enter the virtual village of Wanzuzu and figure out why villagers are getting sick. Discover the ways that good sanitation and hygiene practices can help reduce illness in the community, and provide suggestions for what the community can do to improve public health.

Students in Panama examining a world map.

Thank you to all of those who are currently participating in the Correspondence Match program! Remember that your Volunteers will likely be away from home for Thanksgiving, so try to send them a special holiday greeting from the class.

We would also like to ask for your assistance in identifying additional teachers for the Correspondence Match program. Currently, the Peace Corps has more Volunteers in the field than at any time since 1970; and with more Volunteers interested in the program, we need more teachers with whom they can correspond!

If there are teachers at your school who you think might be interested in participating, please forward this link to them with our new promotional poster.

Encourage your colleagues to take advantage of this wonderful program to help U.S. students learn more about other countries and cultures by corresponding with a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Water Source Protection Travel to Cameroon and learn how groundwater contamination can affect a community’s health. Analyze and represent health data for nine families before and after a groundwater protection project. Use the data to explain the project’s impact on public health.
Volunteer Voices Listen to podcasts featuring the voices of Peace Corps Volunteers who have promoted health education and awareness in communities across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Infectious Disease: Evolving Challenges to Human Health Visit the Marian Koshland Science Museum’s online exhibit. View the interactive maps on the global distribution of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera. Use the maps to identify global health trends.
Centers for Disease Prevention and Control Visit the CDC Education page to find classroom resources that promote healthy behaviors and introduce students to the fields of public health and epidemiology.
What’s it like to be a health volunteer? Read stories from Peace Corps Health Volunteers who have served in Africa and Latin America. See photos of their work in action on Peace Corps’ Health and HIV/AIDS Flickr page.