Above: St Kitts (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The United States Peace Corps is phasing out of St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda due to the two countries’ reaching a “high level of development.”

The Peace Corps officially closed its programmes in the two countries Jan. 1, following 50 years of service.

The organization said it had successfully met the need for “trained men and women in education, health, agriculture, environment, youth and development and community economic development.”

The two are part of the Peace Corps’ Eastern Caribbean post.

The Peace Corps still has programmes in Dominica, St Lucia, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

More than 3,770 Peace Corps volunteers have served in the Eastern Caribbean since 1961.