In recent days, there have been many cases of COVID-19 reported across the country. As of press time, 38 confirmed cases have been reported in Qinzhou and Maiji districts of Tianshui City, Gansu Province, and the situation in Qin’an County, 30 kilometers away from the area where the confirmed cases are located, was serious. Since 2012, USTB has established a paired-up assistance relationship with Qin’an County. In the face of this round of epidemic, all members of USTB have made concerted efforts to contribute financial and material resources to the prevention and control of the epidemic in Qin’an County, passing on the warmth of USTB at the first time and contributing the strength of USTB.

After the confirmed cases reported in Tianshui, the temporary Assistant Party Branch to help Qin’an County of USTB held a special meeting immediately to discuss the specific help measures for the prevention and control of the epidemic. Prof. CHEN Xuesong, Secretary General of the Party Branch and Director of USTB’s Poverty Alleviation Office, emphasized that the officials and volunteer students should give full play to their own advantages, take up the responsibility in the prevention and control of the epidemic and show the spirit of USTB. After the meeting, Mr. LIANG Zhiyang and Mr. GAO Yan, the First Secretaries in Qin’an, quickly held a meeting of the Party Branches of Qin’an County, and set up a temporary Disease Prevention and Control Party Branch in the county to give full play to the pioneering role of Party members and do a good job in epidemic prevention and control in strict accordance with the requirements of the higher level, so that the Party flag will fly high on the  front line of the battle against the epidemic.

As the temporary Deputy Head of Qin’an County, Prof. CHEN immediately devoted himself into the epidemic prevention and control work, he went all over the Longcheng Town area and 22 villages under the jurisdiction within 2 days. At night, he supervised the epidemic prevention and control checkpoint in the community, timely pointed out the omissions of prevention and control work and build the first line of defense. To ensure the continuity of USTB’s overall assistance work, Prof. CHEN contacted suppliers of groceries (eggs, grains, etc.) to ensure seamless integration of the school’s centralized procurement and teacher’s gift package after the epidemic. Mr. LIANG and Mr. GAO took the lead in carrying out 24-hour checkpoint duty, took the initiative to undertake the night shifts and other work, and publicized the epidemic prevention and control situation and knowledge through WeChat, loudspeaker and other channels, reflecting the responsibility of the cadres. On the basis of building a solid prevention and control barriers, they mobilizing all villagers to take turns on duty to fight against the epidemic, and carried out a series of activities to care for the vulnerable groups, including carrying out disinfection work and donate epidemic prevention kits. At the same time, USTB made full use of its educational resources to create short videos on “fighting COVID-19 at home” and launched daily “reading online” activity for students in Kangpo and Qinwa villages, so as to alleviate the villagers’ psychological anxiety in fighting the epidemic at home to the maximum extent and effectively assistant students in home study.

During the epidemic, members of the Graduate Student Teaching Group stuck to their posts and conducted online teaching for nearly 1,000 students from three schools using different online platforms, ensuring the teaching tasks with quality and quantity. At the same time, in the teaching process they focus on the mental health guidance of students, especially for left-behind children and other vulnerable groups, according to the actual situation of one-on-one counseling to ensure that no student left behind. Outside of teaching, members of the Teaching Group give full play to their strengths and take practical actions to participate in epidemic prevention: Mr. YANG Wenlong and Mr. LIU Shuo, volunteer teachers in Longcheng Town, responded to the call of the local government and carried the responsibility to walk into villages to publicize the epidemic prevention policies; Ms. JIA Yizhen and Mr. YAN Zhengquan, volunteer teachers in Wangyin Town, took the initiative to participate in the street cleaning work in Wangyin Town, thoroughly disinfected the whole school, and consciously assumed the checkpoint duty; Mr. CAO Zhen and Mr. ZHENG Zihan, volunteer teachers in Xingguo Town, responded positively to Qin’an County’s epidemic prevention and control policies. After learning that their dormitory was identified as a centralized quarantine site, they moved out of the dormitory at 4:00 a.m. and provided the mobile bathing machine they bought at their own expense to the medical staff in the quarantine area.

To help the epidemic prevent and control work in Qin’an, USTB allocated 200,000 yuan of assistance funds to help the towns in purchasing epidemic prevention materials and ensure that cadres are on duty 24 hours a day during the epidemic. In response to the difficulties of strong local control and lack of epidemic prevention materials, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Computer and Communication Engineering, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Foreign Studies, Office of International Affairs and other units raised funds through various channels such as donations from teachers and students to purchase epidemic prevention materials to help Kangpo Village, Qinwa Village and Wangyin School District to meet the urgent needs of the local communities.

The epidemic will eventually pass, but the friendship between USTB and Qin’an County will be continued.