Peace Corps volunteers could soon be arriving in Afghanistan as part of President Bush's plan to double the number of Peace Corps volunteers and expand the list of countries where they serve.
As he swore in a new Peace Corps director Friday, President Bush announced a Peace Corps assessment team will soon be arriving in Afghanistan, part of his goal of reinvigorating an organization created by President Kennedy in 1961.
"Those new volunteers will be heading out to new destinations," he said. "They'll be returning to the republics of Central Asia. And within three weeks a team will leave for Afghanistan, to address how the Peace Corps can assist that country in reconstruction."
In the coming months, new Peace Corps volunteers will arrive in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan as well as in East Timor and Peru. Some 7,000 Americans currently serve as Peace Corps volunteers in 70 countries around the world.