Promoting Volunteerism for Peace and Development

36 . PROMOTING VOLUNTEERISM FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENTAfter your assignment“A UN Volunteer‘s experiences should bean ongoing and evolving process – notjust a one-time stint.“A former UN VolunteerWhen your UNV assignment comes to anend, you will join the ranks of a globalcommunity of more than 50,000 former UNVolunteers scattered all over the world.Both collectively and individually, former UNVolunteers are part of a very powerful force.Many UN Volunteers view their assignmentas one stage of a lifelong commitment tovolunteerism for peace and development.Debriefing and End-of-AssignmentReportWhen you undergo your end-ofassignmentdebriefing and submit yourfinal Volunteer Reporting System (VRS)report, you are invited to share commentsand stories about your personalexperiences with volunteerism fordevelopment. We ask you to share yourexperiences so that you can contribute toand enhance our knowledge aboutvolunteerism for peace and development.Stories that showcase the special rolevolunteerism played in achieving theobjectives of your assignment areespecially helpful.The process of recording yourexperiences will help to highlight thebenefits you brought to your hostcommunity. This process also offers youthe opportunity to identify challenges anddescribe how you addressed them (or ifthe challenges persist, to offer yoursuggestions for addressing them). It is animportant chance for you to reflect on yourassignment and put your wholeexperience as a UN Volunteer into abroader picture, in terms of yourcontribution to both development and yourpersonal growth, before you return homeor move on to your next professionalopportunity.Sharing your experiences withvolunteerism during your assignment willhelp UNV improve its support for futurevolunteers. Your experiences and thelessons you learned during yourassignment will also help futurevolunteers to grasp the distinctivecontribution that UN Volunteers make todevelopment, and will furnish them withgood practices from the field.