African national joins wife to volunteer in GD非洲小哥和中国太太组战“疫”志愿CP

Echar Christopher Sunday (Sam), from Nigeria, has worked in Zhanjiang for years. On March 12 this year, the Zhanjiang Foreign Affairs Bureau and the Zhanjiang Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League jointly issued a public notice on the recruitment of foreign affairs volunteers. After Sam’s wife submitted the application form, Sam said excitedly, "I also want to join!” Sam is willing to support his second hometown, hoping to help more people in need.

A month later, this volunteering couple actively participated in the online and offline training of volunteers, while firmly learned about epidemic prevention knowledge, as well as related policies. In the meantime, Sam proactively carried out volunteer service activities at Zhanjiang Airport, measuring the temperatures of visitors entering Zhanjiang, and distributing leaflets.

He also promoted epidemic prevention policies and guidelines to the community, advocating the cooperation of African personnel in Zhanjiang through personal experience and facilitating their daily life and work.

In order to more effectively prevent the spread and seriousness of the epidemic, Guangdong cities have implemented strict epidemic prevention and control measures. "In the beginning, I did not understand some of the prevention and control measures." Sam said.

With increased communication with surrounding people, Sam gradually realized that the epidemic prevention and control measures were for the health of himself and others, regardless of whether they were Chinese or foreign nationals. To this end, Sam took the initiative to apply to the Municipal Foreign Affairs Bureau to participate in work to facilitate visiting foreigners.

In his view, due to differences related to varying cultural backgrounds, the biggest problem was communication, and he was able to build a bridge of communication between the two sides.  "Some foreign friends are worried about testing and they may be mistaken for virus carriers. I am their like their brother or sister, and I can communicate with them better.” Sam said.

“It's a very memorable and meaningful experience to be a volunteer related to foreign affairs to help foreigners who live in Zhanjiang like me.” On April 27, Sam wrote a letter of appreciation to the Zhanjiang Foreign Affairs Bureau, saying “I am very grateful for the trust of African nationals in telling me their life stories and challenges here. I sincerely hope that I can help them as an honorable volunteer, and I hope I can do more.”

Throughout the process of volunteering, Sam also met Sabry, an old friend of his from Egypt from many years ago who has also lived in Zhanjiang for more than ten years. Sam said that in small families and even the country as a whole, harmony and communication are needed. Only by facing the epidemic and working and cooperating together can the epidemic be overcome and human health protected.

The first batch of 46 foreign volunteers in Zhanjiang City, Guangdong, cover 5 languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, French, and Spanish, while their occupations cover civil servants, teachers, college students, and returnees, etc. They went to grassroots levels, cooperating with the health, public security, community authorities to do a good job in the protection and management of foreign-related services for epidemic prevention, while helping foreigners understand the prevention and control measures, and helping Zhanjiang City to prevent and control epidemic situation.

News Written by Rachel Huang & Shirley Tan

News Edited by Hazza Harding

Video Edited by Sue Su

Posted by Rachel Huang

Producer: Michelle Luo

Executive Producer: Lin Weiqing 

Sources: GDFAO , 湛江电视台 & 湛江云媒