Hong Min follows her father’s example to join the 24th Chinese medical team to Mali in 2015

Hong Min will never forget 18 July 2017. It was the day when the nurse received the medal of the Order of Health Merit of Mali for her service in the country as part of the 24th Chinese medical team. 

The award, in the words of Samba Ousmane Sow, then minister of health and public hygiene, is a token of appreciation for the efforts of Chinese healthcare workers as well as a reminder of the long-lasting friendship and model cooperation between the Chinese and Malian peoples. 

Given that her father Hong Yusi participated in the first Chinese medical team sent to Mali soon after its independence, Hong Min is even more proud of receiving this honour.

Photos taken in 1968 show Hong Yusi’s life and work in Mali as a member of the first Chinese medical team to the country

Recounting a precious journey  

Hong Yusi still possesses the photos from 1968 when he first arrived in Mali to serve as a translator and interpreter for a team of 20 Chinese medical professionals. 

“At that time, the then Ministry of Health of China (now National Health Commission) instructed us not to work in the urban area but to go and help in the most difficult locations,” he recalled. The Chinese medical personnel were ultimately dispatched to Markala Hospital, around 280 km from the Malian capital of Bamako. 

Without tap water and electricity to their premises, the team members were forced to fetch water from the Niger River, and each carried a kerosene lamp at night for reading and caring for hospital patients. “We had to spend time growing our own veggies and making our own vests in addition to the clinical practice. We had little time to rest as a result of this,” said the father. 

The lack of good healthcare facilities presented a bigger challenge to the team members than their living conditions, however. An obstetrician taught his local colleagues how to do artificial respiration to infants to reduce the high neonatal death rate, and doctor donated blood for an intensely bleeding pregnant woman. “While doing so, we tried to serve the people with all our hearts,” he explained. 

Fluent in Bambara, the most widely spoken language in Mali, Hong participated in four medical aid missions to Mali. Even after he retired, he volunteered to teach the team members this local tongue. He created a teaching textbook and taped popular terms to help them to better understand the language. 

“He always shut the door and urged us to stay quiet before each recording. We would secretly laugh after listening to him, not understanding any syllable he spoke,” recalled Hong Min with smile, who remained curious about her father’s experience in medical missions since childhood. 

“According to his account, he had challenging living and working circumstances, yet he never voiced any complaints. So, I would like to experience that,” she said. 

Taking up the challenge 

Working as the head nurse for the surgical department at Zhejiang Provincial People’s Hospital, Hong Min applied to join the 24th Chinese medical team to Mali in 2015. Despite his full support for his daughter’s decision, Hong Yusi could not help worrying that she would not be able to cope with challenges. “I was born in the countryside, and doing hard work is natural for me; but I’m afraid it won’t be the case for my daughter, who grew up in the urban city,” the father explained. 

In reality, his worries turned out to be needless. On 20 November 2015, four months after the arrival of Hong Min’s medical team in Mali, a shooting accident followed by a hostage situation took place in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Bamako. After being asked by the Chinese Embassy in the country, the team immediately started treating the wounded at the resettlement centre just 500 metres from the site of the attack. Despite the risk of personal harm, none of the members retreated from duty. “Having seen so many brothers and sisters working day and night for years, I don’t think there is any obstacle our health workers can’t overcome,” said Hong Min. 

In the operating room of Mali Hospital, which was built through cooperation between the two countries, Hong Min worked as head nurse for two years. She was particularly worried about the lack of Malian nurses in this sector, in addition to the conventional care services in the operating room. She instructed local healthcare workers to achieve nursing standards in the surgical department in her spare time during the two years. 

A free medical service activity held by Hong’s medical team at Kati Hospital in June 2016 was one of the experiences that left a lasting impression on her. She went back to the premises where her father’s mission was located in the 1980s. At that time, the Chinese team worked to build Kati Hospital’s orthopedic division. Many years after the mission was finished, its orthopedic staff continue to be the best in the country. 

And for Hong Min, she had a unique sensation when she found that the hallway, railings, and walls were nearly identical to how they were in her father’s photo album. “Our role models are the older generations. The best thing we can do is to emulate them in order to preserve the trust they have gained from the Malian people and to perpetuate their spirit,” she concluded.  

A Long-Standing Friendship 

China and Mali have always had a close health partnership. From 1968 to 2022, China sent 28 medical teams with a total of about 900 doctors and nurses to Mali. In September 2011, Mali Hospital, funded by the Chinese government, was inaugurated and put into operation. It became the first general hospital in Africa donated by China, where all the members of the Chinese medical missions to Mali, who previously worked in different hospitals in Markala, Kati and Sikasso, are now grouped together.