Gyeonggi-do, First Local Government to Raise the 'Volunteer Flag (Gi)'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has raised the 'Gyeonggi Volunteer Flag' for the first time among local governments ahead of Volunteer Day on December 5 next month.

On the 29th, Gyeonggi Province announced that it raised the Gyeonggi Volunteer Flag at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office in Suwon and the Northern Gyeonggi Office in Uijeongbu. The province will display the volunteer flag for two weeks until December 12.

Volunteer Day was established by the UN in 1985 to express gratitude and respect to volunteers and to promote volunteer activities.

In Korea, Article 13 of the Volunteer Activities Basic Act and Article 18 of the Gyeonggi Volunteer Activities Support Ordinance designate December 5 every year as Volunteer Day and the following week as Volunteer Week, during which commemorative events are held.

Oh Tae-seok, Director of the Provincial Autonomous Administration Bureau, explained the background, saying, "To commemorate the hard work of volunteers who spared no support to overcome COVID-19 and solve social problems, we decided to raise the volunteer flag for the first time among local governments nationwide. We hope everyone will remember the efforts of volunteers working on the front lines of COVID-19 response for a long time."

To respond to the shortage of medical personnel due to the rapid increase in confirmed cases, the province formed the Gyeonggi Emergency Medical Support Team in August last year and recruited 2,196 volunteers. Among them, 384 were assigned to residential treatment centers and other facilities.

Additionally, to facilitate smooth COVID-19 vaccination, 64,795 volunteers worked at vaccination centers over seven months, and the total number of related volunteers in the province reached 570,000 over the past two years.