On May 9, 2016 Kovel was host to the Director of Peace Corps, Karrie Hessler-Radelet  and the Deputy Ambassador to the US Embassy in Kyiv, George Kent. They were in Kovel to visit the center for Legal aid and to hear about the work the center has been doing in collaboration with their Peace Corps Volunteer, Richard J. Roman.

Karrie Hessler-Radelet oversees the Peace Corps’ worldwide operations from Washington DC. There is currently 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers in 69 different countries. Mrs. Hessler-Radelet, the 19th Director of the Peace Corps, was sworn in on June 25, 2014. Prior to this, she served as the agency’s acting Director and deputy director from 2010–14

George Kent is like the director of operation at the US Embassy in Kyiv. He acts as Charge d’Affaires (person in charge) whenever the Ambassador is absent. He is responsible for ensuring the Embassy can operate with allocated resources and together with the Ambassador runs the Embassy front office.

Hessler-Radelet and George Kent spent most of their time with the staff at the Center for Legal Aid which is headed by Альона Матвийчук. For 1 hours these government executives listened to a presentation from Наталіа Самчинська and me. In their presentation they detailed the unique nature of the Center’s nationwide operations which advocates for legal development throughout Ukraine and focused on the community development project the NGO has formed in the Volyn region.

These activities were followed by a lunch at Nasha Misto, a local restaurant. Throughout this lunch the executives, staffers, and the team from Kovel continued the discussion of the activities of my activities and how we can expand on current projects in Ukraine.

For more information, please read my blog post about the event by clicking here.

*These are the thoughts and ideas of Richard J. Roman, and are in no way associated with the Peace Corps or its affiliates.