A friend in need is a friend indeed. The saying proved to justify itself Friday night when Oleksandra Shestakova and her 10-year-old son Stephan received food and cartons of drinking water at about the same time their supplies were running out. It was delivered by volunteers and a Shenzhen Daily staff member.
The mother and son from Ukraine live with their four cats in Xinzhou North Village, Futian District, and they are being quarantined at their home since their building was locked down amid the recent COVID-19 flare-ups in Shenzhen. On March 3, their building was designated from a control area to a lockdown area, where residents must stay at home, and door-to-door delivery services are provided.
Stephan sent a video Saturday afternoon to express their gratitude for those who helped them. “Thanks to the volunteers and Shenzhen Daily, they brought us water, milk, bread and apples. I also want to say thank you to others for their help,” Stephan said in Chinese in the video.
“This [the bottled water] is more than I have ever expected. We thank the help from Shenzhen Daily. My son and I will never be thirsty again!” Shestakova said. “I also want to thank the volunteers in my community who got the water delivered to our door. They already have a lot of work to do helping so many people.”
Shestakova told Shenzhen Daily in an interview that she doesn’t speak Chinese so she had difficulties reporting her needs and difficulties to the community. She turned to a fellow expat friend for help Friday afternoon. Unfortunately the friend was also restricted at home due to the pandemic, but managed to get in touch with volunteer Wong Woon-li from Malaysia who speaks fluent Chinese. Wong is a member of the Shekou International Volunteers Team and she has been serving at nucleic acid testing sites in Shekou for the past few days.
Wong said she called Shestakova’s community to try to help at 3 p.m. Friday, but the line was busy for a very long time. After many calls, Wong finally got through and explained Shestakova’s situation to the community.
At 9:10 p.m., Shestakova received bread, apples and milk, but said that drinking water was a problem because of different living habits. They usually drink bottled water and are not used to drinking boiled water. “I will survive, but I am just worrying about my kid,” Shestakova said.
Learning about Shestakova’s water shortage problem, a staff member with Shenzhen Daily who lives nearby decided to send bottled water to them. At 11 p.m., four cartons of bottled water were sent to the entrance of Xinzhou North Village. The Shenzhen Daily staffer said when he arrived at the entrance, he found that the community workers were very busy, and in the lockdown area he could only drop off the water on the shelves at the entrance for community workers to arrange the delivery to their door.
At not even 10 o’clock on Saturday morning, Shestakova told Shenzhen Daily that she had received the water. "I have a wall of water. I am very thankful for your help," she said.Shenzhen Daily reporter tried to contact the Xinzhou Community staff, but they are too busy to have interviews. However, Chen Guiqiu, a property manager of an apartment complex in Futian, told Shenzhen Daily that she also reached out to report the mom’s situation to Xinzhou North Village Community on Friday night. According to Chen, the community was very responsible, understanding and considerate. “A social worker from the community replied to me on WeChat at 3:00 a.m. Saturday saying that volunteers would deliver the water in the morning. He also told me that the community responds to every household’s basic needs. They will pay extra attention to the expatriate residents who don’t speak our language,” Chen told Shenzhen Daily.
Chen added that in recent days community workers in lockdown areas normally work from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. the next day, and their work is very exhausting especially when door-to-door delivery services are provided.Shestakova said during lockdown, her son has been a big support for her and they enjoy playing chess these days.
