Volunteers in Longtan community of Chongwen district in Beijing will get rewards for their work—being served when they become elderly.

According to the community's new volunteering system adopted this March, each volunteer has his or her own "account" and can deposit the time they spent serving the elderly in the community. When they themselves reach 60 years old, they can get service for as long as the time they have volunteered.

The win-win system has attracted 500 volunteers since its trial run four months ago, adding a total of 3,500 hours of service time to their accounts.

The system will also rate the services of the volunteers and award the excellent ones with honored titles, said the Beijing News.

"We have no restriction on age. Everyone can register to become a volunteer as long as you are healthy." said a staff member at the Longtan neighborhood committee.

The service includes cleaning, cooking and chatting with the elderly.

There are 67,862 elderly in Chongwen district, making up 19.6% of its total population, the report said.

(CRI April 24, 2008)