If you're interested in the Peace Corps, here's a checklist of benefits - and precautions - for older volunteers to consider



If you're interested in the Peace Corps, here's a checklist of benefits - and precautions - for older volunteers to consider

Before you volunteer ...

JULIE GILGOFF

February 26, 2005

If you're interested in the Peace Corps, here's a checklist of benefits - and precautions - for older volunteers to consider:

Volunteering offers new life experiences, language and professional skills, and potentially more options for your career once you return. But two years is a substantial commitment. How would living in another country for this long affect you personally and professionally? Talk it over with your friends and family.

The Peace Corps provides full medical coverage for volunteers, but living in some countries may increase your vulnerability to illness, so consult with your doctor.

As a volunteer, you'll get a monthly living allowance to cover housing and other basic needs. You also receive a small monthly travel stipend that can be applied toward 24 vacation days per year. (The cost of getting to the country of service and return trip home are covered, but other visits home are not reimbursed.)

These stipends, while modest, could mean two years without tapping into your Social Security, pension or other retirement funds. And when you complete your service, you receive a $6,075 payment to help readjust to life back home.

Presumably, you're an open-minded person if you're considering joining the Peace Corps, but would you be willing to adjust to a new lifestyle and give up some personal comforts?

For more about the Peace Corps:

Call toll-free 800-424- 8580 and press "1" at the prompts to ask any questions or request an application from the recruiting office.

Contact the New York regional office by phone at 212-352-5440 or send an e-mail to this address: nyinfo@peacecorps.gov. You also can visit the office at 201 Varick St., Suite 1025, in Manhattan, to talk to a Peace Corps representative in person. Remember to bring a photo ID.

Check out the national Web site, www.peacecorps .org and click on the "Find Local Events" icon to look for one of many upcoming information sessions at New York City and Long Island college campuses

as well as at the regional office and other locations.

Look under the header "About the Peace Corps" and click onto "Who

Volunteers," followed by "Older Applicants" to get a description of the benefits and challenges for senior Peace Corps volunteers. To explore the option of serving together with your spouse, click on "Married Couples."

When this story was posted in February 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

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Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar:Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

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February 19, 2005: This Week's Top Stories NPCA Board positions are open for nomination 17 Feb Mike Tidwell on trial for climate action protest 17 Feb Katie Dyer is co-owner of Cadeaux du Monde 16 Feb Cyclone misses Tonga and Samoa PCVs 16 Feb Phil Hardberger in debate for Mayor of San Antonio 16 Feb Edmund Hull is Princeton Diplomat-In-Residence 16 Feb Bruce Greenlee is longtime friend of Latino community 15 Feb Mike Honda new vice chairman at DNC 15 Feb Jospeh Opala documents slave crossing from Sierra Leone 14 Feb Dear Dr. Brothers: Aren't PCVs Hippies? 14 Feb Joseph Lanning founded the World Education Fund 14 Feb Stanley Levine draws Marine and Peace Corps similarities 14 Feb Speaking Out: JFK envisioned millions of RPCVs 13 Feb Chris Aquino visits mother's homeland of Vietnam 12 Feb Is PCOL blocking users from posting messages? 12 Feb JFK Library opens Sargent Shriver Collection 1 Feb RPCV responds to Bulgaria Calendar concerns 28 Jan

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WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

RPCVs contend for Academy Awards Bolivia RPCV Taylor Hackford's film "Ray" is up for awards in six categories including best picture, best actor and best director. "Autism Is a World" co-produced by Sierra Leone RPCV Douglas Biklen and nominated for best Documentary Short Subject, seeks to increase awareness of developmental disabilities. Colombian film "El Rey," previously in the running for the foreign-language award, includes the urban legend that PCVs teamed up with El Rey to bring cocaine to U.S. soil.

Ask Not As our country prepares for the inauguration of a President, we remember one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century and how his words inspired us. "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

Read the stories and leave your comments.