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Service: Volunteers spend the first few months
in site learning about their community and assessing the
needs of the people there. Successful Volunteers use
cultural sensitivity, maturity, problem solving skills,
data collection, self-reliance and interpersonal skills
to discover their role in their communities. Creativity
and patience are very important in this process.
Over 24
months, Volunteers are constantly receiving training.
Three months into service Volunteers participate in a
reconnect and regroup session. During service Volunteers
attend various workshops and in-service training
sessions or participate in the training of other
Volunteers and Trainees. After 12 months of service
Volunteers receive a full medical and dental evaluation
as well.
Vacation: Volunteers receive 2 days of vacation
for every month of service (24 days/year). Vacation days
must be spent any day a Volunteer is out of site,
including weekends and holidays. While Volunteers can
leave their sites to work in other areas or visit other
sites, any time a Volunteer leaves the country or
travels solely for leisure Vacation time is taken.
Early
Termination/Administrative Separation: For
various reasons some Volunteers need to end their
service early for a host of personal or medical reasons.
When this happens a Peace Corps makes arrangement for an
Early Termination (ET) are they are flown back to
the United States. If a Volunteer has been in violation
of Peace Corps regulations they can sometimes be given a
warning or if it is a serious offense they Volunteer is
Administratively Separated and asked to leave the
country. These courses of action are neither encouraged
or common.
COS/Extension: Once Volunteers have completed 24
months of service and, hopefully, made a contribution to
their community they attend a Close of Service (COS)
Conference to reflect on their activities in-site.
During this time Volunteers complete a Description of
Service (DOS) document which lists the skills the
Volunteer demonstrated, what they accomplished and
training they received. This can be used for future
employment.
Once this
is completed Volunteers can fly home or cash in their
ticket and fly wherever they want. From COS onward they
can call themselves Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
(RPCVs).
Volunteers can also apply to extend their service
if an activity they began has not yet finished or they
can ask to serve for up to one year in another host
country which might be able to utilize their specific
skills.
From time
to application to COS can be as little as 30 months and
as much as 3 or 4 years in some cases. The road to COS
is long and challenging but 85% of RPCVs say they would
do it all over again if they had to.
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