Hilo’s Dias begins Peace Corps service in Madagascar

Kamaka Dias of Hilo was accepted into the Peace Corps and departed for Madagascar in June to begin training as a secondary teacher.

Dias will live and work in a community to teach English as a second language.

“While I was studying abroad in Spain three years ago, our resident director was in the Peace Corps,” Dias said of his desire to join the Peace Corps. “I like traveling and helping out. I felt like the Peace Corps was calling me.”

Dias is the son of Cecily Robinson and Michael Dias of Hilo. From preschool up until his junior year, Dias attended a Hawaiian immersion school in Hilo where he learned his Native Hawaiian language. He transferred and graduated from Kaiser High School in Honolulu and attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned a communications degree, with a Spanish minor, in May 2016.

During the first three months of his Peace Corps service, Dias will live with a host family in Madagascar to become fully immersed in the country’s language and culture. After acquiring the necessary skills to assist his community, Dias will be sworn into service and assigned to a community in Madagascar, where he will live and work for two years with the local people.

“I hope to be an excellent English teacher, and acquire leadership skills by being in charge of a classroom,” Dias said. “I feel like Peace Corps will help me grow up in general. It’s a challenge — I feel that it’s the last step before adulthood.”

Dias will work in cooperation with the local people and partner organizations on sustainable, community-based development projects that improve the lives of people in Madagascar.

Dias joins the 29 Hawaii residents currently serving in the Peace Corps and more than 1,426 Hawaii residents who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961.

For more information about volunteer positions, visit www.peacecorps.gov/openings.