Lee K.

“Peace Corps can be a great stepping stone. I’ve been able to work as a nurse in Mexican refugee camps, at rural clinics in the mountains of Guatemala, and as a nurse educator in Ghana because of the skills I learned in Mozambique.”

1. What were your primary responsibilities during service?

Public health education, organizational development and strengthening, and improvement of HIV medication adherence via youth groups, community health worker trainings, health talks at the clinic, etc.

2. What projects did you collaborate on with your community?

I did many, but two stood out.

First, I held a competition among community health workers to increase the number of HIV positive patients in community adherence and support groups (GAAC) groups. After 3 months, over 250 new patients joined existing GAACs or formed new GAACs. This greatly decongested the clinic in terms of how many patients needed to pick up their monthly HIV meds and also gave the patients a support group to chat with when they had questions or concerns.

I helped lead (and earn grants for) a sanitation project that improved community health and helped establish self-sufficiency. We constructed latrines, shower areas, and handwashing stations at the clinic I partnered with. Not only did this provide safe and sanitary facilities for both patients and staff (there were none prior to this; people practiced open defecation), but it was a women’s empowerment project. Women made up 83% of the construction workforce. They were trained in construction skills, including brick making, sewage tank construction and building—jobs normally only held by men. At the end, women painted their handprints on the walls so everyone could see proof of all the women who built it!

Women helped construct sanitation facilities at a clinic in Mozambique. — Women painted their handprints on sanitation facilities they helped construct in Mozambique.

3. How did Peace Corps service influence your professional path and development?

Working in global public health showed me the career I wanted to enter.

4. How do you use some of the skills honed during service in your current job?

I use the language skills and intercultural competency I gained and harnessed as a Volunteer on a daily basis in the emergency department in Boston when dealing with all kinds of patients; in a single shift, I had patients who only spoke Spanish, Portuguese, Creole, etc., so it was great that I didn’t need to depend on the iPad translators for clinical assessments. I also knew about tropical diseases to look out for in those just entering the States.

My service experience also helped me advance to nurse educator positions quickly because I was used to leading public health classes for community health workers; it wasn’t hard to adapt that skill to teach other nurses.

My goal is to deploy in disaster relief efforts, especially in the case of an Ebola outbreak, should there be another one, since my first Peace Corps service in Liberia was cut short as a result of the 2014 Ebola outbreak. I’d really love to go full circle and be the one who goes to help rather than leave when the going gets tough!

5. What Peace Corps benefits have been useful to you?

The Coverdell Fellows tuition discount ($12,500) and Gurtler scholarship awarded to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing ($65,000) allowed me to earn my master’s degree in nursing. In doing so I was able to combine my work as a community health and organizational strengthening coordinator with nursing, so I can effectively promote positive behavior change and provide the nursing care and empathy patients need.

6. How have you remained involved with the Peace Corps community following service?

I’m still very connected to my cohort, and often visit them throughout the year or whenever I’m in the States. We are currently planning a 10-year reunion!

I also joined the Peace Corps again and am currently serving as a Response Volunteer right next door in Eswatini and hope to visit my Moz host family sometime during my service. Here’s a link to an article about my more recent activities: Where Are They Now: Lee Kirby - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

7. What tips do you have for Volunteers just returning from service?

Don’t let Peace Corps be your only international service! Join again or continue working in the international humanitarian sector. Peace Corps can be a great steppingstone. I’ve been able to work as a nurse in Mexican refugee camps, at rural clinics in the mountains of Guatemala, and as a nurse educator in Ghana because of the skills I learned in Mozambique.