Kime measures temperature for the villager

As part of China’s fight against the COVID-19 epidemic at the community level, Tiancun Village in Shijiazhuang City, north China’s Hebei Province, has organized a team of 40 volunteers to help contain the disease. Among them is a special member: Gina Kime from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is married to a resident of the village.

Kime volunteered to join the team on February 2. Her tasks in the team range from distributing leaflets on the streets and advising villagers who wander around to go home to delivering masks to the elderly who live alone and maintaining hygiene in the village.

Her work is effective, especially in terms of sending wandering villagers back home. “The villagers are willing to follow her instructions because they appreciate the kindness of a foreigner,” said Zhang Yongguang, a local official.

Zhang said when Kime came to the village in August 2017, she couldn’t speak Chinese and had to communicate with the villagers via the translation software of her phone. Now, she can speak Chinese fluently and has even opened an account on Kuaishou, a short video sharing platform in China, where she shares her daily life in the village.

Although far away from her hometown on another continent, Kime said she doesn’t regret coming to China. “China is a great country and people here are friendly,” she said.

She believes China’s active response to the epidemic shows the high governance capability of the government. “I wish we can do the same in Africa to contain diseases like Ebola,” she said.