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 nyone who has seen a Volunteer open a letter from home
knows how much support comes from the families of Volunteers. Keeping in touch during your loved one's two years of service will be important to
both of you. In fact, families and Volunteers are encouraged to stay in touch with each other. Family members and friends are also welcome to
visit a Volunteer overseas.
The following basic information covers communicating both on a regular basis and in the case of an emergency.
Before departure, your Volunteer will receive information about how you can keep in touch during his or her years of service. The instructions will be
tailored to his or her particular country. If you have questions about communicating with your Volunteer, you may call Peace Corps headquarters and ask
for the Country Desk.
Your instructions will include an address for the initial 10-12 week training period. After training, you likely will receive new mailing instructions from
your Volunteer.
Please check the guidelines before sending care packages from home. Weight, content, and customs restrictions will apply. There may also be prohibitions
against sending food items. You should consider carefully before sending items of great value, too. Please abide by the suggested regulations in order to
prevent the loss or delay of items.
Keep in mind that another country's postal system may take longer to distribute mail than the United States Postal Service. It is not uncommon for
correspondence to take several weeks for delivery. For this reason, you and your Volunteer may want to number any letters you both write to keep track of
your correspondence.
Telephone systems vary from country to country, and both phone systems and access to a telephone may be different than you are accustomed to in
the United States. Volunteers may have a phone in their home, or they may have to place calls from their place of work or a public facility. Other
Volunteers make calls from a nearby town or a friend's house.
Access to e-mail is becoming more common but is far from universal. Your Volunteer may or may not have access to e-mail during his or her
service.
The reach of the Internet around the world is changing rapidly. In some Peace Corps countries, Internet cafés and computer access are common. In
others, they are rare and expensive. Access may vary widely within a country, depending on the nature of a Volunteer's assignment and the community
in which the Volunteer lives.
Your Volunteer's Welcome Book packet will contain more specific guidance for his or her country of service.
Parents should call Peace Corps' Office of Special Services (OSS) at any time if they need to advise their Volunteer of a critical illness or death of a
family member (telephone: 800-424-8580, ext. 1470; 24-hour duty officer: 202-638-2574). OSS, in coordination with the attending physician, will
determine whether the situation is critical enough to grant the Volunteer special emergency leave, at government expense, for two weeks. Even if the
situation does not fall under the guidelines for obtaining special emergency leave, OSS will inform the Country Director so that the information is
passed on to the Volunteer as soon as possible.
Family and friends can make the trip to see a Volunteer in his or her overseas community. Visiting a Peace Corps Volunteer is one of the most
exciting ways to see and learn about another country's people, cultures, and traditions. The cost of your vacation travel is your responsibility.
The Peace Corps provides two vacation days to Volunteers for every month of service.
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Director Gaddi Vasquez talks about Peace Corps' number one priority -- the safety and security of every Peace Corps Volunteer.
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Courtesy of NBC 10 in Philadelphia, we're able to provide this interview with Mike Lyons, a Peace Corps Dad returned from an eye-opening visit with his daughter Aimee in her small village in Togo, West Africa.
Click here to view the interview with a Peace Corps Dad.
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