Team lends a helping hand to expats

Mutual benefit

"While serving international talent, we have also built a platform for those with a passion for volunteer work who want to help others, participate in social governance and have a greater impact on society," Yuan said.

Team members include foreigners, people who work in international companies, and returned overseas students. Their strengths determine where they are posted, according to Yuan.

The team also organizes Chinese cultural activities during holidays such as the Dragon Boat Festival, as well as online lectures on a variety of topics like health, law and culture.

The volunteers are generally between the ages of 25 and 45, Yuan said, and work in various fields professionally. He added that the volunteers who are medical workers, in particular, have played a significant role in epidemic prevention and control.

One of them is Tee May Chin from Malaysia, who is a traditional Chinese medicine doctor working in Wangjing. She has been giving free online health lectures organized by the team to residents in the area for about six months.

Tee came to Beijing in 2009 to study TCM at the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and she graduated in 2017 with a master's degree. She joined the volunteer team after being introduced by a friend.

The team collects medical topics of interest among foreigners for Tee's reference. Her lecture topics range from offering dietary advice to prevent COVID-19 infection, addressing daily health problems such as pimples, and sharing common TCM knowledge such as how to diagnose medical problems by examining the tongue.

She has given more than 10 lectures, each of which was about an hour long. She speaks mainly in Chinese, as most expats have a general understanding of Chinese, but when it comes to some difficult expressions and medical terms, she will use English.

Her lectures attract dozens of viewers, including many expats. Many ask her questions online after the lectures.

"Through the platform, I have made many friends," Tee said. "I met a person from my country who like me has been living in Beijing for many years, but we had never met before."

Tee has also become good friends with a resident in Wangjing from Japan who once received free acupuncture treatment from Tee for neck pain. The treatment was organized through the volunteer team.

"We developed a friendship because of that opportunity. She works in the youth education industry, and I am interested in pediatrics, so we chatted a lot. Both of us think we should have met each other earlier," she said.

Tee said she has been a longtime volunteer in this team because the work is meaningful.

"I couldn't have insisted on doing it for a long while if I were alone. As a team, one can feel more strength," she said.

The team has received a lot of positive feedback from foreign residents, Yuan said.

"Some have expressed gratitude for solving their problems, and many, like Tee, offered to join us," he said.

Contact the writer at zhangyi1@chinadaily.com.cn