Disaster assistance

When the Dhamar and Dawran regions were devastated by an earthquake December 14, 1982, a reconnaissance team of Project 044 PCVs was dispatched within 24 hours. The Dutch asked to participate and two of their volunteers joined the project. Seven teams surveyed 884 villages in three weeks, identifying villages that needed rehabilitation. The Deputy Minister of Public Works was reassigned to head the Executive Office for Reconstruction of Earthquake Damaged Areas. Now, under the auspices of the Ministry of Public

Works and in collaboration with the Executive Office, 044 performs the technical work on earthquake-damaged water systems. Five more Yemeni counterparts were hired by TransCentury following the earthquake. (Garner Interview, 1983.)

TEFL Continuing Education

In addition to assigning PCVs to work directly on water projects, PC/Y was pleased to have one Volunteer, who teaches English at the National Institute for Public Administration, choose to work with Project 044 as his secondary project in the summer of 1983. The PCD helped the PCV design this project because of PC/Yemen's strong interest in increasing Yemeni English language skills. The Volunteer designed an English language curriculum and developed materials for Project 044 counterparts. He also taught English to the counterparts, some of whom spoke a little English and others none. The counterparts were interested in learning English to better communicate with American project staff, to improve their chances of obtaining further training abroad, and to obtain better employment opportunities in the future. (Carter, August 1983.)