In accordance with the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on volunteer services, the national deployment of the State Council’s 15th Five-Year Plan for the Protection and Development of Persons with Disabilities, and the arrangements for the 2026 International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development, the event aims to integrate domestic and international volunteer services, advance China’s distinctive major-country diplomacy, and tell compelling Chinese stories of volunteer assistance for persons with disabilities.
Co-hosted by the China Association of Volunteer Helpers for Persons with Disabilities and the Nebula Culture and Education Public Welfare Foundation, the “United in Voluntarism, Public-Minded at Heart, Voices Resounding Globally” Voluntary Disability Assistance Speech Contest runs from July to December 2026. As the organizer of the contest’s International Division, Dalian University of Foreign Languages will fully support and advance the implementation of the event throughout the cycle.
On July 10, as part of the series events marking the 16th National Voluntary Disability Assistance Sunshine Action Theme Day, the launching ceremony for the International Division of the Voluntary Disability Assistance Speech Contest was grandly held in Changchun. Leading officials and guests including Lyu Shiming, Member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Vice President of the China Volunteer Service Federation and President of the China Association of Volunteer Helpers for Persons with Disabilities; Zhang Dongmei, Deputy Director of the Organization and Liaison Department of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation; Su Jian, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Dalian University of Foreign Languages; Chang Weimin, former First-Level Inspector of the Henan Disabled Persons’ Federation; and Qu Dapeng, Announcer from the East Radio Center of Shanghai Media Group, jointly took the stage to unveil the event. Accompanied by an on-site countdown and promotional videos, the official launch of the contest’s International Division was announced.
Included in the key annual work of the China Organizing Committee for the 2026 International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development, the contest has entered its full-cycle preparation phase at our university. Leveraging our strengths in multilingual disciplines and accumulated experience in international education, we have advanced comprehensive preparations covering overseas registration channel development, multilingual service support, international public welfare exchanges, global promotion of contest entries, and foreign liaison and coordination. The national final is scheduled to take place at our university in mid-November 2026, gathering disability assistance volunteers and public welfare practitioners at home and abroad to discuss the future of accessibility. Our university will oversee on-site organization, evaluation guarantee and other core procedures, striving to present a high-quality, heartwarming international event featuring professionalism and dedication.
Hosting this contest constitutes a vital practice of our university’s international education philosophy and long-term commitment to public welfare volunteer services. Taking this event as a platform, our university will fully showcase China’s achievements in voluntary disability assistance, promote coordinated development of domestic and international disability volunteer services, and give full play to the unique role of volunteer services in Sino-foreign cultural and people-to-people exchanges. We will disseminate China’s public welfare concepts through youthful voices, demonstrate China’s humanitarian warmth through voluntary actions, inject vitality into Chinese modernization, and contribute Chinese wisdom, solutions and strength to the global integration of persons with and without disabilities and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
