DR. Kymmberli Monique-Sparkles Stowe (who prefers to be called Dr. Stowe Sparkles K.), an American sports teacher in Longhua District, has lived in Shenzhen for over six years.
Like many expats, she joined Shenzhen’s fight against COVID-19 as the city witnessed another resurgence of the virus.
As a keen supporter of community activities, she always tries to help.
“I help [expat] residents register. I help them get their [COVID] testing done, get the vaccine, and scan the code to keep their information updated,” she said.
“I tried to help in any way, whenever there’s a message that a virus volunteer is needed, I will do,” she added.
Stowe’s enthusiasm in public service has impressed many people.
“She has indeed participated in a lot of these works to assist in epidemic prevention. She is very enthusiastic about public welfare and has participated in many volunteer services in the neighborhood,” said Tao Tongtong, who works at the Guanlan International Block.
In Stowe’s opinion, governments can’t do the epidemic prevention by themselves. “We must all work together!” she stressed.
“We individuals, whether you are a citizen or not, a foreigner or local, must help the government," she said.
Her daily life has also been affected by virus’ resurgence.
“Not only myself but my dogs have been affected. I’ve had to quarantine several times. Not due to any fault of my own.
However, epidemic prevention is the role of all individuals,” she said.
She was quarantined once due to some sort of mishap with the batch of individuals she was tested with.
“For precaution and to ensure safety for all, I had to self-quarantine for 14 days. I could not go out. My only outings were my balcony and my roof top,” she said.
Another time she was quarantined was due to a contact trace when her entire building was quarantined.
“This is really hard especially when you have pets. I have a service dog who is trained to go outside only. Trying to retrain a dog to go inside due to them unable to understand what’s going on is very hard,” she said.
“I can’t complain or be angry because I’m fortunate to live. ... Even with all this quarantine we are undergoing, I must say that I am forever grateful to the level and amount of prevention that is being implemented here. Because China is one of a few countries that have not given up and have refused to allow the virus to defeat them.
“They are showing that the value of human life weighs much more than anything. In my opinion, it appears that most countries are worrying about their economy dropping versus the value of human life.
“Without the citizens [human beings], there is no economy. And when you value life first and foremost, it pays off in the end,” Stowe said.
She mentioned some problems due to misunderstandings using the Yueshengshi (粤省事) miniprogram, an online platform through which the Yuekang codes (粤康码), or Guangdong health codes, are issued.
“This miniprogram does not accept the passports of foreign individuals but only Chinese citizens’ ID,” she said, adding that she knows some expats have been refused entry to many public places because of it.
“I would like to say thank you to Shenzhen Online and Longhua Education Bureau who have been helping and assisting with all they can and working on a solution for this,” she said.
“We are all here to live, work and play together. Having and displaying a little kindness and compassion for others goes a long way. It takes 43 muscles to frown but only 17 to smile,” she added.