COURTESY OF ZHUOCHENG HUANG
Many members of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at WSU are worried for their loved ones in China affected by the coronavirus.
For the past
70 days, Zhuocheng Huang had to adjust his sleep schedule to accommodate charity
workers in China, which is 16 hours ahead of Pullman. After the coronavirus
outbreak, Huang said he felt the urge to help
his country by shipping medical gear to those working in hospitals.
“Wuhan is [a]
closed city,” said Huang, president of Chinese Students and Scholars
Association (CSSA). “If the city is closed, that means it’s … serious.”
On Jan. 24,
Huang wanted to start a Supporting Wuhan campaign at WSU. He decided to partner with the CSSA organization at University of Washington
instead as they were already in the process of filing paperwork needed to send medical gear to China.
Both CSSA organizations
partnered with non-university affiliated groups to send packages on Jan.
26 to China, he said. CSSA at WSU contributed to sending a total of 400 protective
suits.
Out of the 400
suits, Huang said CSSA member
Yinian Yang contributed $500 of his own money, which equated to 125 suits.
Yang said his
hometown is far away from Wuhan, yet his
city had about 50 reported cases of the virus. Yang thought about what would
happen if the outbreak occurred in his town and he knew other people would try to help, he said.
“I want to do
my best to help them,” Yang said.
Huang said
they chose to send protective suits because it is becoming more difficult to
purchase protective face masks, especially for medical staff.
“Everyone’s
trying to buy,” he said.
Huang said
packages have been sent to Zhejiang, Hubei, Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong
Province, as well as Changsha, Shengyang and Chongqing City. CSSA plans to
continuously send packages “until all the suits are sold out,” he said.
Huang said he
remembers when he first heard the news about the outbreak.
“The Wuhan
government said, ‘This disease is under control, everything’s fine, don’t worry
about it,’” he said. “At that point, I feel like … something went wrong.”
After the
outbreak doctors and nurses would work about 10 to 12 hours a day, Huang said.
He thought raising medical gear for them would be the most helpful contribution
he can make.
Huang said his
family lives in a city near Wuhan. People in his town can reach Wuhan in about
one and a half hours.
“I was
worrying about my family,” he said.
Huang’s mother
has a chronic disease and has to visit the hospital every week, he said.
Doctors and nurses have the most direct contact with patients, and some of them
are prone to carrying the virus.
“I’m still
worried about her,” he said. “I hope she’ll be fine.”