Of those volunteers, 232 3.4 percent of the Peace Corps total were age 50 or older.
Some are working in mobile vaccination centers in hard-to-reach communities.
Others are reaching out to help community organizations provide information to those who have yet to get a vaccine.
This isn’t the first time the Peace Corps and FEMA have teamed up for public service.
What many people may not know is that there is no upper age limit to joining the Peace Corps.
Philiphose was posted to Zambia, a return to Africa after many decades.
While there he got to know a group of young Peace Corps volunteers.
I want to do whatever I can to help the rest of population.
Everybodys not safe until everybodys vaccinated.
Philiphose says he was a little anxious but not worried.
I still practice every day.
Philiphose is bullish on older Americans joining the Peace Corps.
I keep telling them they ought to get more people with more experience.
There are a lot of healthier 80-year-olds in America who could be helping.
All of us should be helping."
This is a big problem in Zambia, where people don’t want to know.
I want to do whatever I can to help the rest of population.
Everybody’s not safe until everybody’s vaccinated."
As a young woman, Wavde answered an ad in an American newspaper seeking physical therapists.
Wavde began volunteering at local food pantries, libraries, any place that needed an extra hand.
Eventually, when I was turning 50, I thought: ‘You know its now or never.’
She applied and in 2019 became a community health adviser in Kabadula, Malawi, in southeastern Africa.
She and others in her volunteer group focused on helping people learn how to prevent malaria and HIV.
