Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2019-118
Jennifer DaPolito served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania from February 2015 to March 2017 in a community health program. She describes her background in international development and the relevant permaculture skills she gained from working on a small homestead farm prior joining. Her training included a community-based home-stay, cluster-based language and culture training, and a 3-month community entry and mapping phase in the village where she would serve, Idetero. DaPolito emphasizes that the most meaningful parts of her service were the close personal and work-related relationships she cultivated with the women and girls, especially her work training women to be "nutrition mamas" and training children to make re-usable sanitary pads. She also talks about witnessing the lasting impact that volunteers can have among the people with whom they live and work. After the Peace Corps, DaPolito completed a master's degree in public health and is writing a book about the resiliency of the girls and women she met during her service. Interviewed and recorded by Evelyn Ganzglass, June 22, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).