Editor's note: This news column showcases stories from around the world that bring a touch of positivity to the fight against the deadly coronavirus.
A Spaniard who had studied and worked in China put her connections to use to help make vulnerable senior citizens safer during Spain's coronavirus outbreak.
Cristina Bermejo Garcia, who spent six years in China, was worried that older residents in a part of Madrid that she knew would be forced to resort to homemade solutions in response to a shortage of face masks and other protective gear. And her concerns did not stop there.
Through her efforts, nearly 1,750 items－surgical masks, other masks rated to the FFP2 standard and protective suits were donated by the Shanghai-based Fosun Foundation and two other Chinese enterprises. They reached communities in north Madrid on April 23 and, with Bermejo Garcia's help, were distributed to clinics and nursing homes－amounting to dozens of locations.
But that was only part of it. Nearly 15,550 protective items were also delivered at the same time to two major hospitals in the Spanish capital, where they were in short supply, for the frontline medical workers.
Bermejo Garcia, 35, a senior architect at Fosun Hive's office in Lisbon, Portugal, worked actively as a bridge between the Chinese enterprises, which had wanted to donate supplies, and those medical institutions that needed help in Spain.
The Fosun Foundation reached out to her in late March, asking whether she was interested in helping to facilitate donations from Fosun as well as Heaven Pictures (Beijing), a film-production company. Also on board was the Committee of Qin 100, an economic collaboration program initiated by 100 entrepreneurs, which wanted to help the medical institutions most in need in Spain.
For Bermejo Gacia, who had just returned to Madrid because her mother took ill before the outbreak, there was only one answer.
She asked around among her Chinese friends in large Chinese businesses about their experience in managing international donations and also began looking for donation recipients through Spain's health authority and via personal networks.
That led her to two hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in Madrid that gratefully accepted the timely help from China. Old school friends also made suggestions, with one person's mother working as an intensive-care nurse in one of the hospital and the father serving as a director of internal medicine at the other.
"I really want to thank the Chinese companies that sent the personal protective equipment to our hospital to help us in the difficult time that Spain, and especially Madrid, has experienced," said Isabel Zardoya, the ICU nurse from the Clinico San Carlos hospital. "Your kindness helped us continue working to save lives."
And she recited a line from Don Quixote, the iconic character in one of Spain's most celebrated literary works, printed on the boxes carrying the donations: "When faced with communal difficulties, our minds will become closer and friendship will be strengthened."
Since the middle of April, Bermejo Garcia has produced a series of video blogs to record life amid the pandemic in Spain, and much of the record relates to her work in facilitating the donations from China.
She said many of her friends from China sent messages after seeing the postings online. "They were concerned about the situation in Spain and Europe, asking about my family and for my address to send me masks. You can see people's kindness springing up in the hardest of times," she said.
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