By Zuo Shengnan, Gao Jun and Cai Tong
A special parcel was sent to the Army Medical University of the PLA from overseas on February 16, 2020. Inside the bundled-up package, there are 750 neatly packed face masks and a national flag of Afghanistan.
Who went through all the trouble to send the scarce supplies from distant Afghanistan during the critical anti-epidemic period?
It was later confirmed that this special gift came from Mohammed, a current foreign military medical student studying at the Chinese PLA Army Medical University, who is now far away in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan. "I definitely want to lend a hand when I see that China needs help, although I am a foreigner," he said.
Mohammed has to postpone the date of returning to school in China due to the novel coronavirus pneumonia （COVID-19）outbreak, but the distance cannot stop him from being concerned with the epidemic in China.
"I know that the Chinese PLA Army Medical University has sent many medical personnel to Wuhan, including the teachers we often see in class and hospitals. They are heroes! Learning that they were in urgent need of medical masks, I immediately contacted my friends to buy as many as I could.
Mohammed managed to get 750 masks. "It was not easy. There are also purchasing limitations for masks in Afghanistan, and demand exceeds supply."
Then it was even more difficult to send out international parcels to China in special times. Mohammed looked for accessible logistics on the Internet, used his unskilled Chinese to communicate with the courier many times and completed the delivery procedures finally.
Mohammed found that the WeChat group of international cadets from the Chinese PLA Army Medical University has been very lively recently, as the members discuss the epidemic situation, share the news, and pray for China ... Everyone hopes to contribute their own efforts.
According to Mohammed, he and his friends bought additional 20,000 masks in four days after sending the first batch. They sent the masks to the Chinese embassy in Kabul and asked the staff there to transfer those masks to Wuhan.
Mohammed said: "I just did what I wanted to do because I am also a military doctor and I love China!"