Volunteers Ready to Help

Students in Russian higher education participate in holding major events.

Russia has a developed student volunteer movement focused on making arrangements for large entertainment and cultural events such as the World Festival of Youth and Students, Olympiads, Student Games, various competitions, summits, forums etc. More than 15,000 volunteers from Russia and other countries provide support to FIFA World Cup 2018. Many universities launched volunteer training centres. The Lobachevsky University centre trained at least 2,000 World Cup volunteers. Over 300 students attended Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University volunteer training sessions. One hundred and five I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University students enrolled in a city team of World Cup volunteers. They are tasked with providing medical aid to football fans if necessary. Volunteers are also trained at Far Eastern Federal University, Russian People’s Friendship University, Samara University etc.

International students take an active part in the volunteer movement. Samara University postgraduate Luciano Ralison from Madagascar joined a FIFA World Cup 2018 volunteer team. Luciano enrolled at the Institute of Aeronautical Engineering in 2010 as he had been interested in aviation since childhood. At present, he studies aircraft engineering and teaches French at a Samara linguistic centre. He is also quite proficient in Russian which he learnt during his study at the university. On hearing that World Cup organisers were recruiting interpreters, Luciano applied to a volunteer centre as he wanted to be involved in this grand event. He helped arrange the work of journalists who covered World Cup matches. In his opinion it is an exciting activity that gives the opportunity to make new friends.