Jilin province reports having around 2.5 million volunteers doing various kinds of voluntary works, accounting for nearly 9 percent of the province's population, the website chinajilin.com reports recently.

The province says it has been encouraging voluntary work in recent times through publicity, speeches, brochures, photo displays, cartoons and the media and various forms of support to get more people involved and has seen more volunteer groups popping up across the province.

One of these groups, "Baby Back Home" was set up back in 2007, when Zhang Baoyan and her husband decided to found an association to help lost or abandoned children, and by now they have helped about 400 children return to their original families.

Another volunteer group affiliated with the provincial Red Cross has helped to raise money to save hundreds of people in difficulty even though its head Liu Fengying suffers from cancer herself, and many of those people have joined her team afterwards.

Another volunteer, Hu Yanping, called "China's Madam Forrest Gump", has set up a provincial exemplary volunteer base for helping the disabled, enabling several dozen homeless people with mental problems to start a new life thanks to the group's help.

But, these are just a few of the many volunteers in Jilin.

Volunteers take part in an voluntary activity to lead people to cross the road in the city of Jilin, Jilin province, on March 5, 2011. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

Volunteers return birds to the wild in Jilin, on April 22, 2012. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

In 2012, the province established a system to recognize and award more than 7,000 volunteers and 1,500 organizations for their contributions and to encourage more people to join the team.

The provincial volunteer service federation has also contributed to forming a volunteer group system through regional volunteer associations or federations and folk organizations and by encouraging students to join the effort. Over a 4-year period, it gathered in 552 volunteer units.

Volunteers sweep the snow in a square in the city of Jilin, Jilin province, November 30, 2013. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

Jilin has also begun a campaign to promote volunteer work in rural areas, for caring for the elderly, the disabled and teenagers. It also helps with technology applications, village environment and cultural development, joint urban-rural development and joint army-civilian construction work in such areas.

Today, Jilin leads the nation in volunteer work, so that it has even become a required area for undergraduates in various universities.