China to launch first national volunteer association
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China's first national volunteer association will be launched in March by its preparatory committee as a pioneering move to promote better management over nationwide volunteering resources, the Beijing Times reported Wednesday.
The China Volunteer Association (CVA) will make sure rights and musts of volunteers are protected and followed.
Data released by the preparatory committee of CVA showed that there are nearly 430,000 community volunteering organizations and 190,000 volunteering service stations in more than two thirds of cities and counties and 2,000 universities across the nation.
Nearly 50 million community and youth volunteers are available at any time each year. Among them, there are 29.46 million registered youth volunteers and 6 million registered community volunteers, according to the preparatory committee of CVA.
"CVA will be able to absorb more volunteers around the country than Chinese Young Volunteers Association, the first national volunteer association only aiming at the youth," Zhang Shu, an employee of the publicity office of CVA, told the Global Times.
Zhang added that volunteering services at present face great challenges and difficulties owing to unbalanced management in different provinces, the lack of relevant laws to regulate volunteers’ rights and obligations, among others.
"CVA will lay down a unified standard on the recruitment, training and management of volunteers and establish a classified database according to the volunteers'ages, profession and other personal information for optimized distribution of work," Zhang said.
Hu Xingdou, an expert on China-related issues at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the Global Times that the set up of CVA will better protect the due legal interest of volunteers.
More than 200,000 volunteers rushed to help rescue victims in the devastating 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, which left 87,000 people dead or missing, according to data from the Communist Youth League of China.
"Many earthquake volunteers who lost their jobs or were contaminated with diseases or injured following rescue attempts failed to get compensation," Hu said. "CVA is expected to maximize the social contributions and legitimate rights of volunteers as well as promote good morals."
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