After making headlines last week for discharging one of its volunteers when he tested HIV positive, the Peace Corps is now seeking experienced volunteers over the age of 50 to help combat HIV in such developing countries as AIDS-ravaged Ethiopia, the Christian Science Monitor reports (csmonitor.com, 4/25).

The article notes that the agency is loosening its medical criteria and reducing its 27-month service commitment to accommodate older volunteers. The Peace Corps, which has received over $50 million in funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) over the last five years, is shifting strategies in its AIDS relief efforts and hopes to attract experienced volunteers to enhance its current crop of recent college graduates.

“You can’t replace that experience,” Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter told the Monitor. “The same kind of passion that these young people have, these people have…but they have 30 years of experience to bring along with it.”