EU-China Year of Youth 2011
Opening Ceremony, Brussels
January, 10-11, 2011
Audience: The workshop of volunteering gathered young people from China and different countries of Europe
Meaning and impact of volunteering
In the first day of the workshop we tried to come to a mutual understanding of the term “volunteering” which was formulated as a definition on the second day of the workshop from the viewpoint of European Commission Task Force for the European Year of Volunteering. “Volunteering refers to all types of voluntary activity, whether formal, non-formal or informal, and which are undertaken of a person’s own true will, choice or motivation without concern of financial will,” said Jutta Koenig-Georgiades, the representative of EU Task Force for the European Year of Volunteering.
Volunteering in China. On the first say we also learned about the framework of Chinese youth voluntary service development. The representative of Chinese Association of Young Volunteers explained that volunteering in China dates 1000 years back, but in 1993 China volunteering organization was established and nowadays more than 30 million people are participating in this program. Program is mainly introduced through universities when students get opportunities to go on volunteering on different fields: education, farming, migrant work and work with migrant children. He stressed that migrant issues have become very important and migrant children need assistance. Other types of volunteering include:
- Chinese volunteers going overseas. Today there have been more than 500 volunteers sent abroad. They are mostly sent to Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
- Volunteering in mayor events, like Olympic Games 2008
- Emergency rescue in volunteering where youth volunteers were very active
- Environment protection project which includes cleaning and propaganda of environment protection.
Partnerships. After the introduction of volunteerism in China European side was represented by Anja Bourgeous and Helena Kamencikova, the representatives of Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). They introduced the participants with Youth in Action program, particularly, European Voluntary Service (EVS) and opened the floor for discussions on possible cooperation with organizations in China as EU partner.
Personal Experience. The first day was highlighted by the presentation of Xu Benyu, Chinese experienced volunteer and nowadays Vice President of Chinese Young Volunteers Association. He shared his personal experiences on volunteering though not always pleasant experiences. One of them took him to very tough living conditions in mountains where the only light was a candle light, while other experience sent him abroad to Zambia when he met problems with his stomach as he wasn’t used to the local food. Finally, he was also a volunteer of Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.
Volunteering for development
The second day of the workshop continued the discussion on volunteering. The first presentation introduced us to youth volunteerism and MDGs. It was presented by Mae Chao, Chief Volunteering Knowledge & Innovation Section, United Nations Volunteers (UNV). The presenter introduced the participants with UNV, explained the MDGs, as well as talked about online volunteering and how online volunteers support education of refugees and displaced persons.
The next speaker Matteo Sirtori from European Commission who introduced European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps confirmed that volunteering in the EU is on the rise. However, he also said that very young or non-experienced volunteers shouldn’t be sent to the field as the setting might be difficult for them.
Obstacles to volunteering
The next part of the discussion started with a short explanation on how the idea of EU-Year of Volunteering was born and developed. It was presented by Jutta Koenig-Georgiades, European Commission Task Force for the European Year of Volunteering. The speaker stressed why volunteering is important: “It’ an expression of active citizenship, it promotes solidarity, non-discrimination, harmonious development of society, sense of citizenship, rich learning experience”. She said that in Europe sport is the sector where most volunteers are engaged, followed by social services.
Further on the presentation moved to the obstacles of volunteering mentioning such as communication, problem of finding sustainable funding, lack of monitoring and information, lack of national volunteering strategies, lack of legal framework, for example, training and social insurance, increased professionalization (demand on volunteers to be more professional), lack of recognition of skills and competences gained through volunteering activities. Many of obstacles cannot be overcome by EC as volunteering very much depends on each country’s strategy and in some countries non-strategy system works too, but in some not.
The next speaker Willem de Boer, Chairman of Code-X International, continued speaking about more concrete obstacles of volunteering taken from the experiences on a volunteering organization. He first introduced Code-X, an organization founded in 2002 and spoke particularly about Dutch branch of the organization. Since he had had an experience with sending Dutch volunteers to China and receiving Chinese volunteers in the Netherlands, he outlined obstacle in both parts. For Chinese obstacles might be visa, the difficult Dutch language, culture and the direct attitude of people in The Netherlands whereas in China this is a problem the other way: Chinese people being ashamed to tell that job has not been done well, let volunteers understand that they have done a great job. It’s also an obstacle to find a good host organization in China where English would be well spoken and understood, as well as to get long term visa because until now volunteer work has not been recognized as a good reason for a long term visa in Chinese embassy.
Conclusion
Designing programs, as well as rewarding mechanism is very important in volunteering work. As to Europe, Youthpass was mentioned as a good example for recognition and rewarding. The workshop ended with a great encouragement for volunteering gained from the bright orange bracelets distributed to everyone and equipped with a common slogan for the EU Year of Volunteering “ Volunteer! Make a difference!”
