4-H Movement to Benefit from Services of Peace Corps Volunteers

The 4-H Movement is to benefit from the services of Peace Corps volunteers in many community projects islandwide.
A new batch of these volunteers are to be accepted for service on (July 18), at the 4-H training centre in Rose Hall, St. Catherine.
Executive Director of the Jamaica 4-H Clubs, Lenworth Fulton told JIS News that the Movement has had a long and fruitful history with the Peace Corps volunteers, most of whom come with valuable skills to enhance the programmes.
“Some of them are engineers, environmentalists, agriculturalists and landscape specialists. We choose these volunteers to complement our work and the relationship has been good. They add a feature to 4-H clubs that would take millions of dollars to purchase through other professionals, so we are grateful for them,” the Executive Director said.
“The fact that 4-H clubs operate islandwide with many centres, they are also able to learn from us and to practise their area of skill they bring to the country,” he added.
These volunteers, Mr. Fulton pointed out, would work in specific areas for maximum efficiency. For example, he said that if a volunteer had an inclination towards youth development, he or she would work with the Parish Development Officer (PDO) in the respective parish.
The Executive Director reminded that the 4-H Environmental Challenge Competition, funded by the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica (EFJ), was developed by a peace corps volunteer.
“When you look at utilising used cooking oil as a bio-diesel fuel in the Denbigh 4-H Centre, that was done by a Peace Corps volunteer, and when you look at many of our pioneering environmental projects, those were undertaken by the peace corps volunteers, because they really come with good qualifications in those areas,” he added. Mr. Fulton explained that 4-H programmes are usually tailored to suit the individual, because of the multi-faceted nature of the Movement. These include environmental and agricultural projects, apiculture and home economics, including food preparation. “We set a programme with these persons to work with the volunteers,” he noted.
The Executive Director pointed out that the Peace Corps volunteers, other 4-H volunteers and the communities enjoy a healthy relationship. “It’s a productive relationship.we know that it will continue and we will do everything for it to continue,” he told JIS News.