The Peace Corps - Pernambuco (PC-PE) Rural Development (GERAN) project description and training outline were drafted in mid-1969 to request a group of Peace Corps Volunteers for October 1970 placement on sugarcane plantations. Pre-service training began in St. Croix, Virgin Islands and in Pernambuco. In-country pre-service training plans were refined based on the experiences of four Volunteers who had worked in two teams on two plantations in a six-month GERAN pilot program starting March 1970. The Peace Corps project description was a document required by the Peace Corps bureaucracy to request a group of Volunteers. Since the process of approval, recruitment and training took about nine months, a decision to request a new or replacement group needed to be made one year in advance of expected placement in the field.
