GUANGZHOU - The Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (GAGOC) has paved the way for reformed juvenile delinquents to work as volunteers at the Games.

A 6-year-old girl is among participants in a volunteer campaign at the Guangdong Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents on Sunday. The campaign is aimed at encouraging delinquents to volunteer for the Guangzhou Asian Games after they are released from prison. 

The move is designed to encourage the teenagers, as well as to let them know "they have never been abandoned by society", according to Wang Huanqing, director of the GAGOC's volunteers department.

The 16th Asian Games are due to be held in November in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong, a southern province that borders Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Wang, who is also secretary of the Guangdong Committee of the China Communist Youth League, spoke about the GAGOC's recruitment drive on Sunday at a special event promoting the Asian Games in the Guangdong provincial Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents.

More than 1,000 juvenile delinquents, plus more than 300 police officers and volunteers, participated in the event.

Chen Zhiqiang, director of Guangdong provincial Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents, said recruiting reformed juvenile delinquent volunteers would certainly help encourage them to turn over a new leaf, which will stand them in good stead for the future.

Zhao Guangjun, a volunteer for the 16th Asian Games, said he was happy after he had become a volunteer, because it enabled him to help the needy and to contribute to society.

Drawing on his own experience, Zhao, who was selected as one of the top 10 outstanding volunteers in the country in 2009, encouraged his peers to mend their ways.

Hu Guangmin, a local white-collar worker, said recruiting reformed juvenile delinquents to work as volunteers is a positive and effective method of helping young people who have made mistakes.

Ah Liang, a juvenile delinquent from Shaoguan in northern Guangdong, said he was deeply moved after he had listened to the speeches by Zhao and other volunteers.

"To become a volunteer of the Games would certainly help us to rebuild our confidence for when we are released," Ah said.

As of March 17, more than 660,000 people had applied to be volunteers for the 16th Asian Games and Asian Para Games.