mansoor alam (right) hands a leaflet to danny van der meeren from the netherlands in jiading district.
when danny van der meeren from the netherlands was handed leaflets about the coronavirus outbreak at his home in waigang town in suburban jiading district, he was surprised that the man behind the mask was a foreigner who spoke fluent english. “it was very helpful and i felt well informed.”
mansoor alam, 26, is from pakistan and has been in china for more than four years. he came to shanghai around two years ago to work at shanghai peentech equipment tech co after completing his master’s degree at xi’an jiaotong university.
when he heard the waigang community service center's call for residents to help on february 1, he immediately responded.
“i think volunteering is a good thing. helping each other out in our time of greatest need is the best thing we can do. i don’t think i’m doing something special, it is something everyone can do and everyone should do, wherever we are from. we are all human after all,” he said.
china is a second home for him, he said, as “china has given me a good education, a job and a lifestyle. it is my duty to serve the country at the time when it is in most need.
“pakistan and china are like a family, if one has problem the other is uncomfortable. throughout our lives, we have learned china and pakistan are best friends and support each other at every difficult times,” he said.
mansoor takes the temperature of a driver entering shanghai at gelong checkpoint on the huyi highway.
in addition to his community work, he helps out at the gelong checkpoint on the huyi highway, which connects shanghai and taicang in jiangsu province. during a six-hour shift on friday, he was at the checkpoint stopping cars and talking to the drivers in fluent chinese.
if anyone was found to have a high temperature or to have recently visited key areas such as wuhan or elsewhere in hubei province, he forwards them to other personnel for follow-ups.
on duty, he can’t go to the toilet, eat or even drink due to the heavy traffic as people head back to the city to start work on monday, the first working day for most firms after the extended spring festival holiday.
but mansoor has no complaints. “there are many traffic police working every day there. we have to feel the way they feel.”
he said the police and medical workers had inspired him. “i want to say thanks to the police who are protecting us, doctors and nurses saving lives in hospitals, and staff at toll booths sitting all night in the cold.”
mansoor checks a driver's id card.
mansoor’s family are not with him in shanghai and his mother had been worried about him, but he thinks the government has done its best and that it is safe for foreigners to live in china.
“the best solution at the moment is to separate the sick from healthy people to reduce the spread of this virus because we don’t have any vaccine yet. it helps people get proper treatment and protects their families and loved ones from infection."
he thinks it is important to take precautions like staying away from sources of the virus and maintaining good hygiene. “whenever i go out, the most important thing i do is to wear a mask. i have sanitizer in my car and use it to clean my hands properly.”
he said people in his neighborhood were very friendly and ready to help.
“recently our guards have been very busy. whenever you need to enter your community, they check your temperature and then let you in.”
aside from volunteering, mansoor spends a lot of time at home cooking or doing chores. “it’s boring to stay at home. shanghai feels like it’s empty as everything is closed, but i believe it will be over very soon and we will win the war against virus.”
