Foreign volunteers to get permanent ID cards

Foreign volunteers working in the capital will soon be granted permanent volunteer ID cards by the government. CFP Photo

By Chu Meng

Chinese and foreign volunteers working in the capital will soon be issued permanent volunteer ID cards by Beijing Volunteers Federation.

The change, coming in October, is the first government-level channel that would grant volunteer status to a wide range of international applicants.

The regulation is an answer to the capital’s soaring demand for volunteers and to channel its excess of willing volunteers to channels most in need, the government said Monday.

The federation’s official website at bv2008.cn will open registration during the National Day holiday.

“In the past, all levels of organizations including government bodies, large-scale event committees and grassroots NGOs, had to handle their own volunteer recruitment. There was never any management or supervision from above,” said Hao Gang, the federation’s director of membership.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games and other large-scale local events and the rise of NGOs spurred many Chinese and foreign residents to seek out opportunities to lend their skills.

But many became disheartened when they failed to find an organization that could make use of their professional skills, interests and schedule.

Foreign volunteers received exceptionally limited access to NGO recruitment information – most who found a volunteer opportunity heard about it from a friend.

But the government says things are changing.

“The federation plans to use its website like a job hunting platform. Organizations in need will be able to publish their recruitment information on the federation’s website, and anyone in the public, from any country, can register with us to be a volunteer,” Hao said.

Volunteers who register will be given a certificate and a number. The certificate is valid lifelong, and each volunteer will receive a unique number. Volunteers will receive between one and five stars depending on how many hours they volunteer. Stars are arranged in tiers from 100 to 5,000 hours.

Experts said the new system will be far more effective than former event-based recruitment drives.

“If Beijing held an event like  Shanghai Expo, this database of volunteer ID numbers and membership data would give the government a clear sense of how many volunteers it has and how many it needs to track down,” said Zhang Yi, an official at the China Communist Youth League Beijing Committee, the biggest volunteer management body in Beijing.

The federation is currently managing volunteers for 167 organizations, including medical aid NGOs, senior care and positions at the UN Volunteer’s Beijing Office.

As many as 50,000 openings for volunteers are listed on the website.