The UIC Alumni Association launched a fund-raising event for Hubei during January and February, and as a result, they raised a total of RMB 273,802.28 yuan. More than 200,000 yuan was used to purchase medical supplies for a number of hospitals in Hubei. The remaining amount was donated to a special fund for front-line anti-epidemic medical staff protection as well as their children’s education.
More than 1,000 alumni, teachers, students, and parents worked around the clock to contribute to this fund-raising and medical supplies purchasing.
Donating disposable isolation gowns to Xiaogan area
Action on New Year's Day
The UIC Alumni Association held a meeting on the first day of the spring festival to discuss and support the current situation in Hubei. They had noticed the shortage of medical supplies in Wuhan and other places, so they decided to raise funds and seek medical supplies. An emergency decision-making group was set up, which includes presidents from different branches of the Alumni Association as well as the director of Four-Point Education Coordination Office Ms Jennifer Lin.
The UIC Alumni Association issued a fundraising announcement on 26 January, which received the active support of alumni, teachers, students and parents. After two hours, more than 50,000 RMB had been received; then by 3 February, they had exceeded the original goal of 200,000 RMB. However, they encountered challenges in purchasing and donating medical supplies.
President of the UIC Shenzhen Alumni Association and 2010 Public Relations and Advertising graduate, Che Na, said, “We didn’t have the ability to identify medical resources and we were worried about buying unsuitable products for the hospital.”
In order to purchase the first batch of supplies, 2009 Applied Economics graduate, Liu Rui, who works in the medical field, made phone calls for three hours a day. He experienced many ups and downs in price increases and dealing with refunds.
Nonetheless, the Alumni Association insisted on donating medical supplies as they knew that the hospitals in Hubei were in urgent need, and no matter how difficult it was, they had to find a way to transport the supplies.
Point to point, heart to heart
After discussion, the emergency decision-making group decided to implement a “point to point and third-party verification” method for the donations. The alumni had utilised their resources one after another, with some looking for sources of suppliers, while others are solving logistics and linking up with the hospitals.
On 30 January, 50,000 masks were successfully delivered to the Shiyan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During early February, 32,500 pairs of medical gloves were sent to seven hospitals in Yichang, Wuhan and Shiyan. On 11 February, 2,000 pieces of isolation clothing were delivered to two hospitals in Xiaogan and Anlu. On 12 February, 2,000 bottles of 500ml alcohol and 1,000 bottles of 1.25l alcohol were delivered to four hospitals in Xiaogan, Yichang and Yidu respectively.
Donating alcohol to Hanchuan People's Hospital
Deng Jiahui, a 2011 graduate, explained that as soon as the supplies arrived, they helped the hospital solve some of the shortages. “At that moment, we felt that all our hard work was worth it.”
On 17 February, the fundraising event ended with 1,368 donors participating in this event. The remaining balance of donations was put into a special fund set up by Dongrun Foundation, which is for those medical workers who made outstanding contributions to fighting the outbreak and their children’s education.
President of the UIC Alumni Association, Xie Che, who is a 2009 Finance graduate, said that this was the first time the association had participated in charity events, and it was supported by UIC President Prof Tang Tao, UIC Vice Presidents Prof Chen Zhi and Prof Zhang Cong in addition to many other alumni, parents, students and faculty members. He said it was very heart-warming that UIC united to stand in solidarity during this crisis.
Reporter: Lauren Richardson
Photos: UIC Alumni Association
Editors: Samuel Burgess, Covee Wang, Deen He
(from MPRO)
