Non-profit organizations are also playing a big role in improving volunteer services. One typical example is the Sichuan 5/12 Relief Service Center, set up just three days after the Wenchuan earthquake. The center functions as a volunteer platform and was responsible for verifying information, as well as the distribution and transportation of resources. When it came to reconstruction, the center offered information to more than 80 civil organizations, served as a link between government and non-governmental organizations and a source of information for the public.

The center became famous through these activities and it attracted the attention of many civil organizations and volunteers, from home and abroad, for whom it now provides varied services, including accommodation and project coordination. The successful experiences of the center show that non-profit organizations can be more effective than administrative bodies in facilitating volunteer services.

Chinese volunteerism increasingly respects the personal choices and feelings of volunteers and is on its way to developing an incentive mechanism for volunteers.

For instance, Beijing's Chaoyang district created some philanthropic "banks" for volunteers last year in a bid to balance voluntary demand and supply. Volunteers provide certain services and earn points in return, by accumulating enough points, they receive coupons or other material rewards from supporting organizations.

Such initiatives show that it is not only the government that can reward volunteers. Here, enterprises and the voluntary organizations can offer material incentives and the social recognition that volunteers desperately need.

A recent survey shows that 57.2 percent of volunteers say that social support is not enough, 42.1 percent say the public has a poor understanding of volunteers, and 33.4 percent say governments do not attach enough importance to volunteerism.

Building on the achievements made in response to the Wenchuan earthquake is essential for the future development of Chinese volunteerism.

The author is deputy director of the social policy research center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 05/11/2011 page8)