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Peace Corps Volunteers Build a School in Gabon Young Americans who joined the Peace Corps helped increase food production, build public works, and curb diseases in developing countries, but the majority worked on educational projects. In 1964, these volunteers worked side-by-side with a local resident to build a school in the west central African nation of Gabon, which had won its independence from France in 1960. James P. Blair/National Geographic/Getty Images.