100 Russian Volunteers to Work at London 2012 Olympics

October 4, 2011

drugs helvetica, drugs sans-serif;”>

100 Russian volunteers will be selected to work at the London 2012 games with an intention to learn the techniques of taking care of people with disabilities.

Among those who will go to Britain will be Russian citizens, who speak English fluently and can communicate freely to resolve any difficult situations and conflicts.

26 centres are supervising the selection of volunteers in Russia, who will work at first in London and then – at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

Yelena Krutitskaya, Russia Director of the Volunteer Centre under the Sholokhov University, said: “We’ve selected a 6-member team to represent our centre at the Paralympic Games in London. All these are students of the faculty of foreign languages, who have been engaged in volunteer activities for more than a year now. The main thing here is the ability to work with people with disabilities, which demands special effort. Young people from all volunteer centres will undergo the selection process in a Sochi camp, and on its results they will be chosen to work in London.”

The experience of working at the Paralympic Games in London will be of great help for the work in Sochi, where a non-barrier environment will be created for people with disabilities.

“Now the future volunteers are being taught to find a positive way out of various conflicts. Our task is to teach the volunteers to work with guests. Any person coming from abroad should feel comfortable in an alien city, and volunteers should learn to create comfortable conditions for everyone. And the main thing at Paralympic Games is the ability to work with people with disabilities. Very often a person in a wheel chair needs not only help but also communication,” Krutitskaya added.

The organizers of the London 2012 Paralympic Games said that they needed 70,000 volunteers to ensure its success. According to the current quota, 6,000 out of them must be foreigners. A delegation led by the head of the volunteer system of the London 2012 Paralympic Games Andrew Newman will arrive in Sochi in early October to supervise the selection of the Russian volunteers there.