Through the Decades: 1980s

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PCV Guillermo Pena teaches mathematics at the Queen of the Rosary School in Bo, Sierra Leone.
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PCV Joyce Parker, a health lab services Volunteer at a TB clinic, is shown here with her counterpart. They perform such functions as checking blood samples for TB and testing water samples for parasites.
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PCV Karen Altier pays for lunch in Mugling, Nepal. Karen is a horticulture extension agent.
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PCV Mark Apel is a fresh water fisheries Volunteer at Tamtatkalt Research Station in Ouarzazat, Morocco. He and his co-workers are trying to prove the feasibility of fish farming on a subsistence level in the region.
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PCV Pamela Wessels works on a secondary project as she weighs a baby to monitor growth during a baby weighing clinic at the Centre des Affairs Sociale in Sanankoroba.
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PCV Ron Coulbourne, 34, of Baltimore, MD teaches architecture at Politeknik Ungku in Ipoh. Prior to joining the Peace Corps, he was an architect in Rhode Island, Virginia and California.
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PCV Cindy Cory, 24, conducts a training program on vegetable production for the Ministry of Agricultural employees.
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Honduras PCV Jacqueline Bender works with a hive as she teaches HCNs about Africanized bees.
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Peace Corps forestry Volunteer and Guatemalan co-workers relax at a snack spot following a conference.
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A Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador in 1980 working on building construction.
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PCVs and Honduran residents test eyes with eye chart.
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PCV Robert Kerbawy is a consultant and advisor for English teachers in the town of Limon, Costa Rica. Here he works with children in a local classroom.
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PCV Mary E. Lindeman promotes 4-H type projects with women in rural areas of Costa Rica. She helps with crocheting, arts, cooking, and embroidery projects.
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PCV Katherine Jose is an audiovisual specialist at the Institute for Field Communications and Agricultural Training in Navrongo. She teaches skills such as writing, editing, graphic arts, and electronic typesetting to create communications materials to assist small-scale farmers in agricultural development projects.
December 29, 1981

Peace Corps becomes an independent federal agency.

January 1983

With the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) the longest-serving Peace Corps Director, Loret Miller Ruppe, establishes the Small Project Assistance (SPA) program. Today, SPA funds aid activities in over 40 Peace Corps posts.

January 1985

Peace Corps Director Loret Miller Ruppe signs a letter of agreement establishing the Coverdell Fellows Program with founder Dr. Beryl Levinger.

September 1985

A first in Peace Corps history, more women enter service than men.

1988

Barbara Jo White (RPCV/Dominican Republic, 1987-1989) creates the first World Map Project. Volunteers continue to use the project as an educational tool worldwide.

1989

Paul D. Coverdell establishes the World Wise Schools program (WWS) to connect American educators in classrooms with Peace Corps Volunteers around the world.