A total of 4,329 foreigners have registered as volunteers in Shenzhen, according to the data released by the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League of China yesterday.

Since this year, some 267,000 volunteers including over 200 expat volunteers have joined in the fight against the pandemic to serve more than 2.34 million people, the youth league said.

Duiu Onofrei from Romania serves at a testing site in Shekou. File photo

Representatives of the second batch of elite Chinese and expat volunteers who have contributed to the city’s fight against the pandemic were awarded during a ceremony to inaugurate the Shenzhen volunteer school on Friday.

Sofia Alvarez from Mexico, a Shenzhen University student, was awarded as one of the most beautiful expat volunteers. Her volunteer work was serving foreigners with her Chinese, English and Spanish language skills. “Shenzhen is my second home. I really appreciate the help the city gave me during COVID. So, I wish I could give back to the city,” Alvarez said, adding that she met many friends through volunteering, and they are like a family striving for a common goal.

The Shenzhen volunteer school was inaugurated at the School of Shenzhen Municipal Committee of Communist Youth League of China (Youth School). Xue Qikun, president of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), was appointed as the president of the school.

The school will be responsible for the city’s volunteer services training and related research and development projects. It will also hold charity volunteer culture and services training for young people in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Grater Bay Area and volunteer-themed photo exhibitions to promote volunteers’ role changes from offering social services to partaking in social governance.

The committee also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with SUSTech to jointly conduct volunteering theory studies and research, aiming to make the first batch of advanced research results in the country.

SUSTech set up its volunteer federation in 2017 and 12 charity organizations and clubs later. The school has had 1,182 more registered volunteers this year. The school has cooperated with over 10 institutions like Red Cross Society of China Shenzhen Branch to conduct volunteering activities.