The Peace Corps was invited to work in Lesotho soon after independence in 1966, and the first Volunteers arrived in 1967. Since that time, a relatively constant number of between 80 and 100 Volunteers have served at any given time, except for a brief period following a political uprising in 1998 when the program was suspended. Education and health have been the primary Peace Corps programs here. The focus of Volunteer placement has been rural development, which mirrors the country’s 85 percent rural population demography. Volunteers serve in all 10 districts of the country.
