The message also included his hopes that volunteer activities in Korea will gain greater momentum and greater intensity in order to join successfully in the act of the International Year of Volunteers 2001 initiative declared by the United Nations. Thanks to the initiative of the United Nations Information Center in Athens, the first IYV 2001-related roundtable took place in Greece on 4 December 1999, on the eve of the International Volunteer Day. About 70 people, mostly NGO representatives, attended. Furthermore, plans are underway for setting up an IYV 2001 National Committee very soon. The volunteer organizations in the country met at the end of January to plan IYV 2001 activities for 2000 and 2001, among them Youth Service Day and the National Volunteer Week.
Lions are men and women who volunteer their time for humanitarian causes.
The association annually sponsors a Lions Day with the United Nations. Informational programs are held at the UN in New York and at other key centres around the world. A decree defining the procedures of civil volunteers working with the Civil Defense Office has been recently published in the official bulletin of Tunisia. The first article of the decree stipulates that volunteer work in the civil defense is a free involvement in prevention, rescue and salvation activities and against dangers threatening people and their belongings. The volunteer's work is developed in the framework of charitable and assistance associations.