African students well protected in NE China’s Liaoning during COVID-19

By Wang Jinhai, Liu Jiahua, People’s Daily

African college students in northeast China’s Liaoning province have been well protected amid COVID-19 by the province’s strict control measures, and the universities and colleges in the province have also won great reputation from the overseas students in return.

“I’m grateful to my teachers for their loving care. I regard Liaoning as my second hometown and will recommend Liaoning University to more African students,” said Azmina, a Tanzanian student studying in Liaoning, in fluent Chinese.

Azmina from Liaoning University was stranded by the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei province when she was on vacation there.

“We kept close contact with her to learn her health conditions and assist her with online courses,” said Wang Qi, a teacher of Azmina, adding that the student’s understanding and cooperation were quite reassuring.

There are a total of 6,659 African college students in Liaoning, accounting for 46.19 percent of the total foreign students in the province. They study at 43 colleges and universities in Liaoning, and 3,370 of them currently stay in the province.

Multiple measures have been taken by Liaoning’s universities and colleges to protect the safety of these students, who also showed great appreciation and understanding and supported China’s epidemic response with concrete actions in return.

A volunteer group was established in Liaoning University for epidemic prevention and control by African students, and Ma Le from Zambia is one of them.

According to him, the volunteers took body temperatures of the students every day, and also sent students’ everyday shopping list to the university’s logistics department.

“We are very grateful to the teachers who worked all day round to ensure our safety, and I also wanted to assist them and the students as a volunteer,” he said.

Shenyang University of Chemical Technology in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province, set up a small self-service library to encourage international students to stay studious during the COVID-19 progress, and Liaoning Shihua University in Fushun, Liaoning promoted scientific knowledge about epidemic prevention and control among African students, to help them protect themselves from the COVID-19 epidemic.

Shenyang Aerospace University had 213 African students on campus during the epidemic, and the university adopted an opinion soliciting mechanism to help them solve the problems they met in terms of online courses.

China has taken science-based and effective measures to prevent and control the epidemic, said a Ghanaian student from the Shenyang Aerospace University, adding “our university attaches great importance to international students’ health and safety. We will continue cooperating as always with the work of our teachers to repay their hard work.”

A Kenyan student who names himself Li Benshan in Chinese has lived in China for six years. He obtained a work visa last year and is now teaching at the Shenyang Aerospace University. Li has made active efforts to help others during the epidemic prevention and control in China.

The Chinese government has taken powerful measures to prevent the epidemic, which brought us a sense of security, Li said, stressing “Epidemic knows no boundaries. We must unite as one to overcome difficulties.”