Zhaoshang Subdistrict awarded three Chinese and eight expat residents for their outstanding contributions in volunteer work, including efforts in combating COVID-19, at a ceremony yesterday, the 36th International Volunteer Day.
The Outstanding Award for COVID-19 Prevention Work was presented to Chinese volunteers Chen Hongwei and Zhang Yawen and expat volunteers Ingrid Sofia Alvarez Vázquez from Mexico, Susan Kim from Canada, Vincent Anthony Fernandes from India and Johannes Bults from the Netherlands. The Outstanding Award for Regular Volunteer Service was given to Chinese volunteer Wang Zhongquan and expat volunteers Kiara Lynn Garcia Hernandez from the U.S., Maria João Costa E Príncipe from Portugal, Alka Gupta from India and Felma Sadural from the Philippines.
According to the statistics from Nanshan International Cultural Exchange and Service Center (NSIC), a total of 317 international volunteers from the subdistrict have been registered on the city’s online unified management platform for volunteer services, 108 of whom are expat volunteers from 42 countries, including the U.K., the U.S., South Korea, Russia, Canada and Portugal.
Over the past year, Zhaoshang Subdistrict’s international volunteer team has actively assisted at Nanshan District’s only COVID-19 vaccination site for expats as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents. The subdistrict has deployed 800 or so social workers and international volunteers handling overseas affairs-related work, serving over 25,000 people with 7,000 service hours. They have assisted 17,001 Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan compatriots as well as 12,249 expats in receiving COVID-19 vaccines.
In addition, thanks to 17 volunteers’ efforts, 784 multilingual books at NSIC were numbered, filed and officially put into use.