Members of the UB Chinese community have raised $19,142 to send medical supplies to hospitals in Hubei province, China after a UB student began a donation program on Jan. 20.
Yuqi Pang, a senior marketing major and vice chairwoman of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, started the program on Jan. 20 and joined Chinese students around the world by raising money to stock hospitals in Hubei province with supplies. Pang’s efforts allowed UB Chinese students and local Chinese residents to raise $19,142 for hospitals in Hubei province.
Wuhan is the center of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, which now has 95,179 global cases, including 40,482 ongoing cases, 27,290 which are confirmed ongoing cases in China and 3,254 people around the world confirmed dead as of March 4. Hospitals are running out of protective equipment for doctors and patients, including protective face shields and coveralls.
Pang says she thinks a lot of students want to help but aren’t sure what to do or which organizations they can trust with their donations.
“The reason why I started this donation is because almost all Chinese students care about the situation in China and want to do something supportive, but some of them cannot find a credible way to donate,” Pang said. “Also, there are a lot of schools that have already started such activity. So, I started this donation to provide an authentic way for those who are worried about people in China and want to make some effort.”
A lot of UB alumni and local Chinese residents also donated, according to Pang.
Huan Liang, an ‘09 alum, said he told more people about the donation program after learning of it.
“At first, I planned to buy some medical supplies online and send them to Wuhan by myself,” Liang said. “However, I could not find supplies which met the medical requirements. Then I recalled there are some UB Chinese student group chats and maybe I could ask them for help. When I saw this activity, I immediately donated. Also, I tried my best to forward information of the donations to get more people to participate in it.”
In the first round of donations –– which began on Jan. 20 and ended on Jan. 30 –– the group collected roughly $17,150. They used the money to buy medical supplies, like surgical gloves, goggles and hand sanitizer and send them to 8 hospitals in China.
“The money is not a lot, but most of it is from students,” Pang said. “The coronavirus is not only in China and it is a difficulty that the world should overcome together.”
The first round of donations ended because the group had a hard time finding medical supplies, according to Pang. Pang said some websites and companies raised prices because of scarcity, sold products in private or sold out on their websites. When she contacted these companies, the sellers said it would take a long time to restock items and even canceled some orders they had already made, Pang said.
Almost all flights out of China and all flights to and from Wuhan have been cancelled, which has impacted the delivery of supplies. Although the supplies are now on their way, Pang said an estimated time for delivery is not clear.
Ruoyang Zhao, a ‘12 alum, lives in China and volunteers for the donation program by delivering the packages that are sent from around the world to hospitals.
“Actually, at first, I was not sure whether the donation and the people were reliable,” Zhao said. “However, after seeing the information released in the group chat for the donations –– the supplies delivered to the hospitals in Wuhan directly –– I know they are trustable. So, I donated and joined the volunteers’ group and started helping them to contact the hospital.”
Zhao said efficiency is important in getting the supplies to the hospitals.
“Our volunteer group decided to communicate with the hospitals about the needs of supplies first, then skip the third party and find the way to send supplies to the hospitals directly to make it more efficient,” Zhao said.
The second round of donations began Feb. 17 and ended on Feb. 18, since the group found a distributor for 3 million 1860 face masks. The total amount of money collected in the second donation was $1,997.50. Pang says she anticipates a third round of donations if the group finds additional distributors for medical supplies.
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