About US
Peace Corps in Kazakhstan
Country Director: John Sasser
257 Kablukova Street,
Almaty, Kazakhstan 050060
Tel: +7 (727) 258-45-00
The United States Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship. Since the official founding of the Peace Corps in 1961, over 195,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers in 139 countries around the world.
Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Kazakhstan for over Fifteen Years
The seeds of the Peace Corps Kazakhstan program were planted on December 22, 1992, when the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Peace Corps of the United States signed a country agreement in Washington, D.C. The Kazakhstani government initially invited Peace Corps to begin working in the areas of English Teaching and Small Business Development, and the first 50 Peace Corps Volunteers arrived in Kazakhstan in June 1993. The Ministry of Ecology and Bio-resources invited the Peace Corps to begin an environment program in 1994, and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Health invited health program Volunteers in 1996.
Today, there are approximately 120 Peace Corps Volunteers in Kazakhstan. Volunteers train for three months, during which they live with host families and learn Kazakh or Russian. They are trained in cultural norms and given intensive training for the job they will be doing when they move to their permanent site. Once they go to their site, they live with host families for at least six months, and often for the entire two years of their service. They work with local Kazakhstani partners at all our sites, with teachers or NGO Directors and staff, and they form lasting friendships with their counterparts, host families and many others. Volunteers receive no pay for their work – only a subsistence allowance to cover food, rent, clothing and other incidentals. Roughly 80% of volunteers complete their full two years of service.
Peace Corps currently operates two programs in Kazakhstan:
• The Education Program, through which approximately 80 Volunteers teach English in Kazakhstan’s schools, working in teams with local teachers.
• The Organization and Community Assistance Program, through which approximately 40 Volunteers work with local non-governmental organizations to help the handicapped, develop tourism, protect the environment, incubate businesses, work with youth organizations and assist groups that strive to improve women’s rights.
In addition, Peace Corps Volunteers undertake community work such as:
• Organizing summer camps for children that stress life skills, English language training, and character development
• Conducting English Clubs and Movie Clubs that assisted interested community members improve their English language skills.
• Distributing information about HIV/AIDS awareness trainings
• Providing computer and information systems tutoring and teaching
• Facilitating Teacher Training Seminars
• Arranging Business Training Conferences
• Spreading awareness of programs that sponsor overseas training for students and teachers
