Members of the Kent Union UKC Chinese Society have been busy organising and distributing care packages for Chinese students in Kent since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK.
UKC Chinese Society president, Tianshu Qin, responded to the Coronavirus outbreak early by gathering information on the number of students who would be staying in Kent until at least the end of the Easter Break through surveys on WeChat. They also reached out to students at nearby St. Edmunds School, the University for the Creative Arts, and Canterbury Christ Church University.
The survey was a collaborative effort between UKC Chinese Society, the Chinese Embassy, and the UK Chinese Students and Scholars Association. Results were sent to the Chinese Embassy by the end of March, and on Wednesday 8 April, the first batch of care packages was received. UKC Chinese Society volunteers then helped unbox, check, sort, repackage and personally distribute over 300 packages. With an additional 40 students approaching the Society, a second batch was requested from the embassy and on the same evening it arrived the volunteers regrouped to begin delivering them.
Their hard work has supported students and the wider Kent community, bringing people together who may other may otherwise feel anxious about being apart.
Every package was labelled with a message stating “The country will always be with you”. Many of the students responded to this act of kindness with their own, by sending gifts to UKC Chinese Society for their efforts in thanks.
Thank you UKC Chinese Society volunteers – Boxiang Liu; Guanglei Hu; Huaiyuan Ren; Junhan Xu; Junjie Chen; Junyu Wang; Qinhui Zhang; Tianshu Qin; Xueshan Leng; Yifan Pan; Yuzhong Wang; Zihao Yin.