国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Chinese American residents stand up for Southern California community amid COVID-_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Chinese American residents stand up for Southern California community amid COVID-

LOS ANGELES, April 5 -- "We are ordinary Chinese American people, we are trying to do a little to help our neighborhood, our city, with our ability, during COVID-19 pandemic," said Maggie Wang, one of the organizers of a Wechat group that has 218 members from the Chinese-American community in Palos Verdes and the Greater South Bay area in Southern California.

"We should come out stronger with more love and hope at this difficult time," she told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Maggie and her friends heard about the drastic shortage of masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment (PPE's) at local hospitals and decided to do something about it.

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Chinese American residents stand up for Southern California community amid COVID-1

They mobilized to source medical supplies to help meet their local community healthcare-worker's and first responders' needs. Galvanized by the seriousness of the situation, they raised 28,400 U.S. dollars from the Chinese American community to buy medical supplies.

They also called on their tightly-knit community to get the word out: "Donate your extra masks, disinfectant, sanitizer, and, yes, toilet paper! Donate what you can!"

And the donations came flooding in. Some donations of N95 face masks even came to them still in their DHL shipping bags from China, having been sent to them by family and loved ones overseas.

Altogether, the group donated nearly 79,000 face masks, 4,000 medical grade gloves.

A total of 20,000 face masks and 4,000 medical grade gloves were donated to the office of LA City Councilman, Joe Buscaino's office, who have quickly distributed the personal protective equipment to LA police officers, fire fighters and first responders within an hour of receiving them.