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Asiad volunteer drive to begin
By Qiu Quanlin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-16 07:37

Asiad volunteer drive to begin

GUANGZHOU: Large-scale recruitment of volunteers for the 16th Asian Games and the 10th Asian Games for the Disabled will officially begin next week, an official from the Games' organizing committee said yesterday.

As many as 60,000 and 30,000 volunteers will serve at the Asiad and the Games for the disabled next year, Wang Huanqing, director of the organizing committee's volunteer department, said.

"In terms of volunteering work, Beijing has shown us a good example of using social assistance at the Beijing Olympic Games. And now we are calling the public to actively participate in the volunteer services for the forthcoming Asian Games next year," Wang said.

Early last year, Chen Xiexia, who won the first gold medal in weightlifting for China in the Beijing Olympic Games, became the first volunteer for the Guangzhou Asian Games.

Chen, born in a village in the Panyu district of Guangzhou, said she was eager to participate in the forthcoming Games and win further glory for her hometown.

"We look forward to receiving volunteer applications for the Guangzhou Asian Games from all social sectors and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, overseas Chinese, Chinese students studying abroad and international friends," Wang said.

Besides recruiting volunteers serving the Games, the organizing committee will also hire up to 500,000 other social workers, to be involved in services facilitating normal urban orders and promoting friendly city images among spectators and athletes during the Games, Wang said.

"People can submit their applications in all street administrative offices stretching across the city, or log onto the Games' official website to file applications," Wang said.

Huang Nanbing, deputy director of the volunteer department, said the organizing committee collaborated with certain universities offering foreign language programs, such as Guangdong University of Foreign Studies to recruit volunteers with foreign language skills.

Zhong Weihe, vice-president of the university, said the university taught six foreign languages widely spoken across Asia.

"In recent years we recruited more students in these foreign language majors, trying to prepare for the volunteering services for the Games," he said.

(China Daily 04/16/2009 page4)