Volunteers to see service recorded in database

BEIJING - The Civil Affairs Ministry on Thursday began to solicit public opinions on establishing a database that would be used to record service rendered by volunteers.

A newly created plan for recording their service calls for philanthropic organizations and social service agencies to designate personnel to record the services provided by volunteers in an in-house database, as well as verify and update the data.

The plan specifically calls for recording the length of the service by counting the hours of actual service rendered. Volunteers will be able to apply for prestigious titles according to the amount of service they provide, according to the plan.

The plan also allows for volunteer service records to be shared among different organizations as long as the volunteer has given consent to do so.

Volunteer organizations will be subject to public scrutiny, as well as oversight by supervisory agencies, to ensure the authenticity of their data, according to the plan.

Charitable undertakings are still relatively new in China. The sector has struggled to develop following a 2011 scandal in which a woman who claimed to work for Red Cross Commerce, an institution that she claimed to be linked to the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), posted pictures online detailing her extravagant lifestyle, leading netizens to accuse her of embezzling funds.

RCSC subsequently denied the existence of Red Cross Commerce, but saw its donations drop by nearly 90 percent over the following six months.