U.S. voluntary organization Peace Corps officially returned to Colombia on Thursday after an absence of 29 years.
The first nine volunteers from the organization were welcomed to the city of Barranquilla by U.S. Ambassador Peter Michael McKinley.
The volunteers will be dedicated to teaching English in public schools in Barranquilla, Cartagena and Santa Marta, the three biggest cities on Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
George Valdino, who leads the Peace Corps mission, said Colombia offers the volunteers “an opportunity to teach and also to learn.”
The Peace Corps left Colombia in 1981 for security reasons.