Over 8,000 volunteers help conduct Paralympics in Sochi - Organizing Committee
MOSCOW. March 14 (Sport Express/Interfax) - Over 8,000 volunteers have participated in the Paralympics in Sochi, having done 80,000 shifts, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee said in a statement.
Over 7,000 people came from all over Russia - most volunteers are from Moscow, Krasnodar and St, Petersburg, there are 400 foreigners from 60 countries and several dozen people with disabilities among them.
The average age of volunteers is 25 years old. Many of them have undergone special training on cooperation with athletes competing at the Paralympics.
A group of volunteers, who came for the Paralympics, has had vast experience in cooperation with people with disabilities. These volunteers have been trained in volunteer centers under the Sholokhov Moscow State University and the Russian State Social University in Moscow. Volunteers have been trained there under a special Paralympics program. They have already participated in a range of events for people with disabilities and worked during the test Paralympics competition in Sochi in the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 seasons and during the summer Paralympics in London in 2012.
Prior to the Paralympics volunteers underwent around 70 training sessions at My Facility, which included materials on Paralympics peculiarities.
For the first time in the history of the Games volunteers were provided with housing and three meals a day.
Volunteers can work with Paralympics transport - Lastochka (Swallow) buses and trains.
Tents equipped with a stage and stage sound, light and video devices have been set up in volunteer villages in the Pribrezhny and Gorny clusters. Wide cultural and entertainment program is organized for volunteers there in their free time.
During the Paralympics most volunteers were involved in such sectors as servicing events (1,824 people), sports (800 people), cooperation with the national Paralympics committees (347 individuals) and with the International Olympic Committee (380 people), accreditation (457 people), arrivals and departures (115 people), and linguistic services (162 people).
Sochi 2014 volunteers have been recruited via 26 volunteer centers established upon Russian training facilities selected in a contest. Anyone aged between 18 and 80 as of January 6, 2014 could become a volunteer.