Tireless volunteer leads the way in Minhang

Jiang Juhong, who has a regular job with the Minhang Archives, has been busy volunteering in her community Chunshen Fudi during the pandemic.

She gets up early and goes to bed at midnight every day, and sometimes even has no time to have meals or drink water. But she has never complained, and is always grateful to her fellow workers.

"Everything's unknown, but it's lucky to have you guys during the lockdown, you are the reason for me to exist," she wrote in her WeChat Moments at 1:45am on April 10, after a day's work.

Credit: Chen Chen / Ti Gong

Jiang signed up for the volunteer team on March 11, when there was a first confirmed case in her community. Considering that the neighborhood committee probably had no time to take care of so many people, with more than 2,000 residents living in 40 buildings, she decided to take it over.

The volunteer team only had seven members at the beginning. With the lockdown of Puxi area since April 1, residents' requests have become more various. Fortunately, more residents have signed up for the volunteer team, and now it has more than 100 members.

She is responsible for arranging the team's work in her community, but mostly she would like to be engaged with their work to make it more effective. This includes distributing antigen self-test kits and maintaining the order of carrying out nucleic acid tests.

Credit: Gu Quan / Ti Gong

Meanwhile, they are faced with a large number of residents in WeChat group chats with different problems and emotions.

"We should solve problems instead of neglecting them," she told Shanghai Daily.

In order to reduce the workload, Jiang has created several group chats with different distributions, such as representatives of 40 buildings and volunteers to manage group buying, food delivery and nucleic acid tests.

She asked buildings' representatives to record residents' requests, make a list and prioritize them based on the degree of emergency.

Jiang has noticed the most prominent problem is the lack of medicines, especially for these patients with chronic diseases.

She got in touch with an open pharmacy and successfully solved the problems for these residents for the first time on April 4.

"It was hard to find a deliveryman because of the lockdown," she said. "But I applied for a pass via my office and get the medicines at last."

Credit: Jiang Juhong / Ti Gong

The lockdown is continuing and residents' demand for drugs is becoming larger. Jiang asked buildings' representatives to record what patients need again on April 10.

Although she had no other volunteer work next day, she was busy with checking drug names and prices. If the drug was out of stock, she would not give up and try to search for other sources.

Other priorities are a lack of food in group-oriented leasing residences, the elderly living alone, the timely information transparency of whether confirmed cases have been transported and the management of group buying.

Jiang has recruited a volunteer "press group" to record what neighborhood committee and volunteers do everyday. The team has 10 members consisting of three writers and seven photographers.

"Many people have no idea of what we are doing due to the quarantine," Jiang said. "These articles and photos can reassure them better and dissolve some misunderstandings."

Credit: Chen Chen / Ti Gong

Residents appreciate what Jiang and her companions have paid out. They have held a fundraising to support volunteers' protective suits and virus-prevention supplies. Balcony performances have also been held twice to express their gratitude.

Jiang has been in the volunteer team for over one month so far. She regularly writes down her personal feelings in her WeChat Moments. She is really moved by her neighbors and proud of them.

"I've lived here for nearly 10 years," Jiang posted on March 30. "It's my first time to be so close to my neighbors. It never occurred to me that there would be so many capable people in the community.

"All of our volunteers are enthusiastic about helping others without any complaint. Most of them need to work online. But as long as they are available, they will sign up for the volunteer schedule."

Because of these people, their community is well organized during the pandemic.

"What an individual can do is little, but the collective power is strong," she added.