Peace Corps DOS

Description of Peace Corps Service

Republic of Panamá 2012-2015

After a competitive application process that emphasized technical skills, motivation, cross-cultural awareness, and adaptability, the United States Peace Corps invited Ms. Naylor to serve as an Environmental Health (EH) Volunteer in the Republic of Panama.

TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT

Ms. Naylor entered into an intensive 10-week pre-service training on May 2, 2012. During that time and throughout her 39-month service, she successfully completed the following training and development:

• 106 hours of formal instruction in Spanish
• 143 hours of technical training (water systems, latrines and sanitation, and health and hygiene practices and education)
• 30 hours of cultural diversity training
• 40 hours of medical, safety and administrative issue training
• 190 hours of program events (such as interviews, community placement analysis, and field trips)

ASSIGNMENT

On July 5, 2012, Ms. Naylor completed training and was sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She was assigned to Alto Playón, a remote boat-access village in a semi-autonomous indigenous region, the Comarca Emberá-Wounaan, located within the Darién province.  Emberá and Wounaan, two indigenous languages, are spoken throughout the community in addition to basic Spanish language ability.

SUMMARY OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS

1. Ms. Naylor improved access to adequate sanitation infrastructure in the community by 36% by advising the health committee through a pilot project and then full implementation of composting latrines 
2. Ms. Naylor motivated five Emberá communities to pursue composting latrine opportunities through the integration of storytelling into health trainings
3. Ms. Naylor trained 279 youth in important life skills by co-facilitating eight youth leadership and personal development activities 
4. Ms. Naylor promoted gender conscientiousness and equality by guiding bi-monthly meetings for a community group of 17 women, co-facilitating a national women’s leadership seminar for 40 participants, and including women community projects
5. Ms. Naylor provided direct technical support for 48 Volunteer sanitation projects and trainings
6. Ms. Naylor trained 70 EH Volunteers and 1,600 Panamanians on critical EH topics such as behavior change, hand washing, disease transmission and prevention
7. Ms. Naylor increased the capacity of the EH program to disseminate technical and project-specific information amongst Volunteers through the development of technical manuals and an online file sharing system

PRIMARY PROJECTS

1. Sanitation Infrastructure: Lacking any form of adequate sanitation infrastructure, the community had worked with a previous PCV to form a health committee and to prepare four families to construct composting latrines as part of a pilot program. Upon her arrival to the community, Ms. Naylor guided these four families through the construction process and managed the USAID project funds. The realization of the pilot project dramatically increased community interest in the technology. 

After 6 months of monitoring and evaluation of the pilot latrines and a four-day health seminar, the project was expanded to include 34 of the 55 homes. Ms. Naylor mobilized the community to organize three phases of construction to build 17 more composting latrines under the supervision of the health committee. Upon her exit, 94 people had access to adequate sanitation infrastructure, a 36% improvement. Furthermore, interviews and observations have shown that one year after installation, 91% of the participants are using and maintaining their composting latrine correctly.

2. Health Education and Promotion: Using her theatrical background, Ms. Naylor restructured the standard sanitation health training materials to engage participants more effectively. Some of her strategies include: puppet shows to demonstrate the fecal-oral route; meditations to connect healthy behaviors to personal values and goals; plays and skits to dramatize real life case studies; songs to remember healthy behavioral strategies; and encouraging artistic license to make sanitation infrastructure attractive. Using these strategies and by traveling with her health committee to neighboring communities to let them share their story, Ms. Naylor inspired pilot composting latrine projects in five Emberá communities throughout the indigenous region.

SECONDARY ACTIVITIES/PROJECTS

3. Youth Development: Ms. Naylor highly values the potential and capabilities of Panama’s youth and expended a significant amount of energy to promote youth development and personal success. In Alto Playón, she partnered with Ultimate Without Borders coaching of a team of 25 youth to use the game of Ultimate Frisbee to impart valuable life skills including personal leadership, teamwork, and positive attitude. Ms. Naylor educated these youth and 245 others in three different camps and 5 trainings across the country on self-esteem, goal setting, and sexual health. Additionally, she supervised an art club of five youth to create a word map at the school. Ms. Naylor hosted a job skills seminar for the first four high school graduates in the community, training them to use email, write resumes, and practicing mock interviews.

4. Gender and Development: The delineation of male and female gender roles in the Emberá-Wounaan community is strongly divided into the two categories. Working within these social norms, Ms. Naylor worked to respect these expectations while sparking a conversation across both male and female demographics to identify positive and negative consequences of this social structure. In bi-monthly meetings of a women’s community group, she taught classes on health, personal leadership, arts and crafts, environmental conservation, and small business management. She helped five of these women attend the National Healthy Women’s Artisan Seminar and co-facilitated the 2014 seminar for 40 women. Additionally, throughout her work in the community construction project, she consistently invited, motivated, and validated the efforts of female workers.

THIRD YEAR – SANITATION COORDINATOR ASSIGNMENT

Based on her positive experience during the first two years of service and her interest in development work, Ms. Naylor was asked to extend her service for a third year to pilot the Environmental Health Coordinator Program. She was nominated for and accepted the position of Sanitation Coordinator. EH Coordinators are outstanding third year Volunteers who act as a liaison within the Environmental Health program between Peace Corps Staff, Volunteers and partner organizations in each region.

Ms. Naylor was selected based on her demonstrated professionalism, cultural adaptability, technical experience, leadership skills and language ability. She was assigned to work as the Sanitation Coordinator and moved to San Félix, Chiriquí, a more centralized location, in April of 2014.  Her three areas of responsibility include volunteer support, development of training materials and events, and program sustainability.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

5. Volunteer Support: The Sanitation Coordinator works with the EH program staff to support Volunteers implementing sanitation projects and initiatives on an informal, as-needed basis. Much of the Coordinator’s time is spent visiting Volunteers in their sites to support their project and training objectives. Ms. Naylor submitted monthly summaries of her 19 Volunteer visits highlighting best practices implemented and potential follow-up needs. In addition, the Sanitation Coordinator fosters collaboration between Volunteers and host country agencies, new and experienced Volunteers, and connects all parties to relevant technical resources. Ms. Naylor supported 38 Volunteers with technical and human resources on 48 projects and health trainings.

6. Training Volunteers and Panamanians: One of the primary functions of the Sanitation Coordinator is to train Volunteers to effectively prepare and execute behavior change-oriented seminars in communities with current or future sanitation projects. By co-facilitating formal training events, Ms. Naylor instructed 70 EH Volunteers. Additionally, in partnership with the Water Systems Coordinator, she developed and executed three four-day workshops to teach 15 EH Volunteers how to implement behavior change strategies into existing EH training materials. 

Ms. Naylor also hosted national and regional health promotion campaigns to Volunteers in all sectors to educate community members in disease prevention at the household, community, and watershed levels. These events included a Global Hand Washing Day art contest for 1,109 indigenous children in the Ngäbe-Bugle reservation, and Acting Out Awareness: Camp for Youth Health Promoters in which 30 youth from many indigenous regions prepared plays concerning disease transmission and prevention. These performances were presented across four provinces reaching 490 community members.

7. Program Sustainability: The role of the Sanitation Coordinator in program sustainability is to aid the organization and continuity of the Environmental Health Program. This work includes updating sector manuals and other technical resources to be shared with Volunteers, and organizing documentation of past sanitation projects to increase accessibility of information on Peace Corps sites. Ms. Naylor collaborated with the Water Systems Coordinator to overhaul the water committee seminar manual, a curriculum including 45 hours of educational sessions on behavior change, technical skills, and leadership for water system management and disease prevention. She also developed and coordinated the creation of technical design and construction manuals.

Ms. Naylor utilized an online organizational file sharing system to collect water project documents and enable access to technical information for Volunteers. This system will continue to aid the efficient transfer of knowledge and skills between successive Volunteer groups.

Language Skills

Ms. Naylor has achieved an advanced competency level in Spanish during her service and effectively used Spanish to communicate while working in her community, with Panamanian government and non-government agency counterparts, and in daily life.  In addition, Ms. Naylor learned basic Emberá, an indigenous language, which she used in simple conversations with community members who often possessed limited or no Spanish skills.

Ms. Naylor completed her Peace Corps service in Panama on August 7, 2015.