The Moscow State Institute of International Relations will serve as the only center for training the volunteers
Moscow’s State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) has opened a volunteer training center to select and prepare over 800 people from across Russia to work as translators at the upcoming World Youth Festival.
The center, which opened on Monday, is the only program of its kind in Russia, and will train a total of 878 volunteers to serve as “attaches of foreign delegations” and provide other “linguistic services.”
As noted in a press release published by the center, volunteers who are proficient in foreign languages and have some familiarity with international protocol will accompany foreign delegations and be responsible for communications with participants from abroad.
It’s expected that the volunteers will have the opportunity to interact with foreign guests in over 50 languages, including 26 Eastern languages.
“MGIMO has unique expertise both in the linguistic training of international affairs specialists and in the implementation of youth policy and the training of volunteers,” the director of the MGIMO Volunteer Movement Support Center, Stanislav Surovtsev, said.
“The combination of these factors, together with the vast experience of the MGIMO Volunteer Movement Support Center, allows our volunteers to take part in organizing major international events, showing high professionalism when accompanying foreign delegations, protocol support, linguistic services, etc.,” he added.
Last month, organizers of the World Youth Festival announced that some 38 national preparatory committees had already begun their work, ahead of the event.
The landmark festival, which is set to be held in March next year in Sochi, aims to bring together over 20,000 young leaders from all over the globe, representing more than 30 countries of the Asia-Pacific region, and promote cultural and business ties between young people from different parts of the world.
The so-called National Preparatory Committees – which will be tasked with selecting foreign participants, forming delegations, and popularizing the festival – have already begun working in Argentina, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Honduras, Georgia, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Spain, Malaysia, the US, Panama, and Ecuador.
Additionally, representatives from Australia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Canada, China, Thailand, Japan, and other countries have also expressed a desire to take part in the event.
