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From 6 July 2006, a graphic version of the current edition is available at the Daily News Online web site.

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The trainees, who arrived in Botswana recently, will be deployed to various parts of the country to help in the implementation of the national HIV/AIDS strategy.

US Embassy public affairs officer Karen Morrissey told BOPA in an interview that there was a time when the peace corps volunteers were no longer needed here, adding that for six years Botswana did not have volunteers.

"There was a time when the United States felt that Botswana no longer needed the volunteers since the programme was meant to aid the poor countries.

Botswana was then considered to have become a middle income country and one of those countries that are developing.

Again at that time the volunteers came to Botswana on a different mission, for instance, as teachers, but due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the president of Botswana requested that volunteers come to join the country's fight against the epidemic.

Currently, Botswana and Swaziland are the only countries that have programmes exclusively on HIV/AIDS," she said.

Morrissey said that during their two-year tenure in Botswana, Peace Corps volunteers "transfer skills to their district AIDS co-ordinator counterparts in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in all national and district development projects.

They stimulate greater involvement in HIV/AIDS activities by communities, establishing procedures to monitor and evaluate HIV/AIDS programmes, and initiating local responses to the impact of HIV/AIDS." She said that US volunteers were serving in 26 countries in Africa and others parts of the world.

"Volunteers are deployed countrywide to work on HIV/AIDS prevention and care or support of those affected by the epidemic.

Since 1966, over 2 100 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Botswana and there are approximately 2 500 volunteers serving in Africa and 7 000 worldwide," she said.

The pre-service training at Molepolole ends next month after which the US volunteers will be sworn in.

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