FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, April 30, 1996

Peace Corps Director Travels to Nepal Will Meet with Volunteers, Nepali Prime Minister, Attend Regional Conference in Kathmandu

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 30, 1996 — Peace Corps Director Mark Gearan arrives in Nepal tomorrow for a week-long visit with Peace Corps volunteers, staff, American Embassy officials and the country's Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba. 

Accompanying Gearan to Nepal are the Peace Corps' director of the Asia-Pacific region, Margaret Goodman, the agency's chief of staff, Thomas Tighe, and the general counsel, Nancy Hendry. 

The officials will visit with volunteers who are working in education, health, agriculture, the environment and community and youth development. They will also participate in a meeting of the country directors representing the 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific region in which Peace Corps volunteers serve.

Gearan will also confer with U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, Sandy Vogelgesang, and directors of several other volunteer-sending organizations.

Peace Corps has a long and rich history in Nepal. Volunteers began serving there in the fall of 1962, just one year after the Peace Corps was founded. Since then, more than 3,500 volunteers have served in Nepal, including nearly 150 today.

Gearan will stop in New Delhi, India, on his way to and from Nepal. He will meet with the U.S. Ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, on Thursday, May 30.

Gearan and the other Peace Corps officials return to the United States on June 5. For specific stories about individual volunteers in Nepal, or to arrange an interview with Mark Gearan about his trip, please contact Brendan Daly at 202-606-3010.

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