Teachers for West Africa Program Records, 1961-1973 | Earl H. and Anita F. Hess Archives and Special Collections

Series I Financial Records and Reports

Series II Newsletters, Program Reports, and PR Materials

Series III Correspondence

Series IV Background Research and Country Information

Series V Orientation and Overseas Visitor Materials

Series VI Forms and Teacher Information

Series VII End of Program

Series VIII Personal

Series IX Photographs

Series X Teacher Personnel Records and Insurance Information

The Teachers for West Africa Program was a program for young people certified in teaching to work in schools in West Africa. The teachers taught in schools in Ghana and Nigeria, usually alongside volunteers in the Peace Corps and other smaller groups such as Teachers for East Africa and Operation Crossroads Africa. The program started in 1961 until it was phased out in 1972. The Hershey Foods Corporation sponsored it, while Elizabethtown College administered it. The teachers who applied were from all over the country, and only a selected few were sent to West Africa.

Over the ten years that Teachers for West Africa Program existed, from 1961 to 1972, they sponsored hundreds of teachers. The teachers were mostly recent graduates from college, some from Elizabethtown College, and others from colleges ranging from Iowa State University to Harvard. They were sent to secondary schools in Nigeria and Ghana and they taught subjects like French, physics, chemistry, home economics, math, business, biology and in the beginning of the TWAP program, English. The agreement was that TWAP funded the travel expenses while the countries where they were posted were expected to pay the teachers’ salaries. TWAP helped to serve 51 schools in Nigeria and 71 schools in Ghana. A total of 238 teachers were sponsored by TWAP, 68 of those held a graduate degree. The teachers would usually serve for a period of two years, unless they chose to stay in the field or they got sick and had to end their term early.

After ten years, the program was phased out by Hershey. Dr. James Berkebile, program director, tried to find another sponsor for the program and contacted many corporations and other institutions, but he was declined by all of them. Even though the program ended in December 1972, the teachers out in the field when the program shut down were encouraged to finish out the school year into 1973.