Volunteers contribute to COVID fight in Shekou

Wong Woon-li (R), a member of Shekou International Volunteers Team, serves a resident who waits his turn to take a nucleic acid test at Chiwan Community in Shekou on Tuesday. Courtesy of Wong Woon-li

After some areas in Nanshan District’s Shekou Subdistrict were put under COVID-19 control measures, volunteers have been badly needed during mass nucleic acid tests. Voluntary service in the neighborhood is now a major task for Wong Woon-li from Malaysia, a member of Shekou International Volunteers Team.

During Shekou’s fifth round of nucleic acid testing Friday, Wong and 10 other volunteers were assigned to serve near the All City shopping mall. They checked health codes and nucleic acid test records, and grouped the test-takers. “As there were too many people queuing for the test, we had to work for six hours until 11 p.m. nonstop,” Wong said at an interview yesterday.

“What impressed me was that many senior citizens came to queue with the assistance of their families and followed the test guides without complaints,” Wong said.

“As volunteers, we need to implement the rules strictly and be patient with each test-taker,” she said.

“Sometimes we need to calm down their anxiety as well as their anger if some misunderstandings are involved,” Wong added.

Wong came to Shenzhen in 2010 and worked at an internet information security company. Wong has traveled to more than 40 countries and regions, and is fluent in Cantonese, Hakka, Fujian and Chaozhou dialects, as well as English and Mandarin. Wong did volunteer services when Shekou Management and Service Center for Expats needed help like visa regulation interpretations for foreign residents in the neighborhood.

In 2020, when COVID-19 first broke out, Wong organized getting masks from Thailand and handed them out to the neighborhood and the local hospital.

Likewise, in Shekou’s fight against COVID-19 during that period, Liu Fang, a human resources manager of a Japanese-funded enterprise in Shekou, helped translating COVID-19 prevention and control brochures and worked as an interpreter for Japanese nationals who were quarantined in the neighborhood, addressing their difficulties in daily life.

“During this round of COVID-19 resurgence, Huaguoshan neighborhood has been put under control for three days starting Sunday. I have to work at home and in my spare time, I volunteer in the housing compound, guiding residents to take nucleic acid tests,” Liu said.

So far, Liu has undergone six rounds of nucleic acid tests. She thought Shekou residents were very cooperative with the government’s COVID-19 prevention and control policies.

David Uyaban, a Colombian who works at BYD in Pingshan District, volunteered in March 2020 at Shenzhen Bay Checkpoint as an interpreter for inbound foreigners when they were transported to quarantine hotels and took nucleic acid tests. Since he was unable to come to Shekou to do volunteer work this time, he did his part by answering expats’ questions regarding COVID-19 prevention and control measures in WeChat groups.

Jiang Yanling, who has signed up her name for volunteer services, is an employee of a Sino-U.S. joint venture company in Shenzhen and has been an international volunteer since 2020. Unfortunately, she was unable to fulfill her volunteer duties this time since her residence at Shuiwan Community in Zhaoshang Subdistrict has been designated as a control area. However, since she majored in German and had German work experience, Jiang helped translate COVID-19 measures into German and reminded Germans in Shekou to take their nucleic acid tests.