Liu Nan quit a satisfying job at a joint venture in Beijing to
join China's first group of volunteers to Laos. Li Honglin also
made a big sacrifice. Upon his return after a six-month volunteer
stint, his wife announced she was divorcing him.
It is a year since a second and third team of volunteers have
been sent to Laos, and two other teams to Myanmar. But those days
are still vivid in Liu and Li's minds as they and hundreds of
thousands of others today celebrate International Volunteers
Day.
"I will never forget the attentive eyes of those Laotian kids,"
said Liu, who taught them English at a training center in the
capital city of Vientiane.
She said she does not regret giving up a well-paid job at Rain
Forest Cafe in Beijing, as she was happy to have brought goodwill
to that country.
For his part, Li, as head of the pioneering five-member team
organized by the Communist Youth League of China, acquired instant
fame after national and local media ran detailed stories on him
when he returned.
He was invited to give lectures at various gatherings on
volunteer service themes. The most impressive occasion occurred
last March, when Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee
of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political
Bureau, attended.
"Nothing has changed since I've come back," said Li. "I am still
a deputy principal at the school, still doing my job of teaching
and doing administrative work, besides sparing some time giving
lectures here and there."
He spent a lot of time lecturing to promote volunteering to as
many people as possible, he said.
Barely 10 years ago, Chinese people really had no idea about
what volunteer service was, except for the traditional call for
learning from Lei Feng, a model soldier who was dedicated to
helping others.
Now, as young people are organized to help the aged and the
disabled, teach in poor inland villages, or serve in large-scale
activities such as APEC and sports games, the idea of active
volunteer service has become well known to people from all walks of
life.
The Communist Youth League of China established an office to
promote volunteering nationwide in 1993.
"Our goal is to encourage more people to participate in
volunteer services, and later develop service as a way of life,"
said Lu Yongzheng, director of the youth league's Youth Volunteer
Service Department.
(China Daily December 5, 2003)