Peace Corps Takes Metro Detroit Couple to Uganda

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A Metro Detroit couple who met while studying business at the University of Michigan – Dearborn and later married are headed to Uganda with the Peace Corps.

Charles Tully and Hannah Sanday, both 27, will live and work at the community level to improve teaching practices in Ugandan schools. They leave for Uganda on Saturday.

As a literary specialist volunteer, Tully will work to improve teaching practices at primary schools in cooperation with the local people and partner organizations, according to a news release. Sanday will work as a teacher trainer at colleges for the primary teachers to train future teachers on best practices in math, science and English.

“Service work, volunteering, and traveling internationally have been a focal point of our relationship since the beginning, and we actually met while we were both serving on the service committee of the accounting and finance organization, Beta Alpha Psi at the University of Michigan – Dearborn,” Tully said.

Sanday, the daughter of Mark and Margaret Purdy and Donaldson Sanday of Waterford, graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance. Tully is the son of Ann and Charles Tully of Southgate, graudated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, accounting and finance.

“UM-D indirectly led and prepared me for Peace Corps service because it gave me opportunities to lead, to connect with fellow classmates from around the world and to learn through a study abroad experience,” Sanday said.

The Peace Corps is not their first adventure. After Sanday graduated college in 2011, the couple backpacked around the world for nearly a year together.

“This experience shaped our lives, both individually and as a couple,” Sanday said. “It deepened our desire to challenge ourselves through international endeavors, to keep learning about the world and also to give back. It led to the discovery of our interest in serving in the Peace Corps together.”

The couple will live with a host family in Uganda for three months to learn the local language and integrate into the culture, and will then be sworn into service and assigned to a community in Uganda, where they will serve for two years.

The Peace Corps said that volunteers like Tully and Sanday gain valuable leadership, technical and cross-cultural skills that will give them a competitive edge in a global job market when they return home.

“We hope to strengthen and gain additional confidence in our ability to take initiative, to exhibit leadership and to follow plans through from the beginning to the end,” Tully said. “We also hope to help the people within our community as much as we can in whatever way we can and provide a positive image of Americans to all whom we interact.”

Tully and Sanday join the 233 Michigan residents currently serving in the Peace Corps, More than 7,107 Michigan residents have served as volunteers since the agency was created in 1961

There are currently 154 Peace Corps volunteers in Uganda working with their communities on projects in English education, agriculture and health, including volunteers in the Global Health Service Partnership program.

During their service in Uganda, volunteers learn to speak local languages, including Ateso, Dhopadhola, Luganda, Lugwere, Lumasaaba, Lusoga, Runyakore, Runyole, Runyoro-Rutoro and Uhopadhola.

More than 1,405 Peace Corps volunteers have served in Uganda since the program was established in 1964.

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